Bring me back to life
by JustJ
Summary: Laura is lost. The joker makes her feel again. But sometimes it's better to feel nothing at all. My first story, please review
1. Games

**Alright, this is the first thing I've written in maybe 5 years. It's a story about a girl who lost everything and has no goal in life anymore, then she meets the joker and her whole life is turned around yet again. Rated M for violence, sex and language. **

**Please let me know if you liked it or not, I can take criticism, as long as it's constructive;) **

**Oh, and I apologize for my horrible spelling and grammar, English is not my native language. **

**Oh and one other thing, I do not own any of these characters except for Laura.**

**Now enjoy!**

**Chapter 1: Games**

_I have felt dead inside for about 5 years. Then, I saw a bright light at the end of the tunnel, followed by an explosion…_

Another day, another dollar, as they say. Gotham city was half asleep, the other half was either drinking or robbing someone. Laura was one of the drinkers. She didn't usually go out, but today she had felt so numb, she thought maybe a drink would help.

When you stop feeling, you can't put your finger on it. You remember that you used to be happy, or at least normal. But, when you lose everything, you start to wonder what the point is of feeling happy, it doesn't solve anything. But she did want to feel sad, she needed to feel sad. Her life was a mess, she had no purpose, no friends, no nothing, she had lost it all. So she decided to drink, she wanted to get mad, to cry, to scream at people she didn't know, it didn't matter, she just wanted to feel something. But nothing came, she had sat alone in the corner drinking whiskey, she hated the taste of it but at least it had a lot of alcohol. She had drunk more than she could remember, but still, as she walked down one of Gotham's many small alley, she didn't feel anything except drunk… And sick.

She decided to light another cigarette, worthless things, just another way to kill yourself slowly, why not do it quickly. Before she could think about this anymore, a wave of nausea came upon her. She grabbed the wall, her cigarette fell on the ground half smoked. Everything was spinning and she knew what was going to happen next. Still holding on to the wall, she let all the whiskey come out again. She felt totally stupid, why had she paid for all that expensive whiskey if she couldn't even keep it in. She didn't even feel anything, except for self-hatred of course, her faithful friend.

She smiled without realizing it and walked on. Yeah, leave it to her to fuck everything up. Not only had she wasted a good deal of her monthly paycheck on the whiskey that was now decorating the pavement in some deserted alley, she still didn't feel anything.

She realized she had lost her cigarette somewhere along the line and decided to grab another one. But when she grabbed the carton out of her pocket it slipped though her fingers, right in a big puddle. That was it. She hadn't been realizing she was smiling, but she sure noticed the giggles now coming out of her mouth. She tried to stop them from coming up but that just made it worst. Everything seemed funny to her now, the stupid whiskey she could've poured on the pavement to begin with, to save herself some nausea. The way she seemed to care more about her cigarettes than anything else her life. The way she faked a smile every day towards the people she met.

She got very angry at herself for her laughter, why should she laugh when everyone she had cared about was death, and people she thought she cared about had left her. But her anger didn't do anything to stop her laughter, if anything, it just made it worse. 'Always the same stupid story, lost everyone, no reason to live, and so on, come on girl, get a life!' she thought, which made her laugh even louder, the sheer miserableness of her life seemed like the funniest thing in the world right now.

Slowly, her giggles died away. That was the moment she realized her giggles weren't the only ones echoing along the lonely streets. She slowly turned around, but saw nothing. Shrugging, she turned towards home again, that was when she saw him.

He was standing in the middle of the street, his large smile carved into his face. Sure, she had seen him on the news. Blowing up hospitals, killing policemen, the whole shebang. She hadn't much cared for the whole thing, she thought maybe secretly she had been hoping she would be one of his victims. Killing herself was something she could never do, but dying, she wouldn't have such a big problem with that.

At last, he stopped laughing. Slowly, he walked towards her, pulling a knife out of his jacket's pocket. She just stood there. She couldn't keep from smiling somewhat. When he was only 2 or 3 feet away from her he started to talk:

"Well, hello there, we're in a merry mood today". She couldn't think of a reaction, so she just stood there and stared at him. For a moment she thought about using the taser in her pocket, but that thought went away quickly, this could actually be the most interesting thing that had happened to her in years.

He took a few steps towards her, now they were standing face to face. He grabbed her face with his gloved hand. She didn't cringe or step back, maybe it was because she just couldn't be scared anymore, maybe she was just too drunk to care.

"why so quiet, don't you want to just, uhm… scream?" He asked, looking deep into her eyes. For a moment she noticed how incredible those eyes were, and wondered what he would look like without the scars or make-up. Then she got herself back in touch with reality, which was, being assaulted by some wackjob in some backway alley. Ah, well, things could be worse.

She smiled a little at her own weird thought. Wow, that was the second smile today, must be a personal record. This made her smile even more. Unfortunately the joker didn't have the same kind of humor as she did. Within a second he had thrown her on the ground, banging her head against the hard tiles.

She slowly sat up, hoping she wouldn't faint.

"what did you do that for?" She asked.

"oh hey, you can actually.. uhm… _talk_." He said, grinning and grabbing her face again. Licking his lips as he pressed his knife against her throat "Now, you listen. I need you… to, uhm, do me a little _favor._"

"Sure, sure, it's not like I have anything better to do…" Was she actually being sarcastic to this madman, it had to be the booze talking, no other explanation.

He threw his head back and let out a high pitched chuckle. "Right, right, ok, you'll still will have time to get drunk alone." He giggled at his own witticism.

"How long have you been following me?" Like it mattered. It wasn't even the real question. What she really asked herself was 'WHY the hell would you follow someone like me.'

"All the _questions_, you_ are_ starting to bore me… How about some _fun_." He had drawn her closer to him, so the last word was no more than a whisper close to her ear. The blade was piercing her skin now,

"Go ahead then, kill me, get it over with, I mean, you're going to do it anyways, why not get it over with."

His grin widened. "Kill you, oh, no, no, no, no, _no_. Well, not yet. We're going to play a little _game_ first. Here, here, take this."

He shoved an envelope in her hands. Then she felt the pressure on her throat disappear, just before he turned and walked away.


	2. Breakdown

**Chapter 2: Breakdown**

She collapsed on her bed about an hour later, she still couldn't put her mind around what had happened. Why had he let her go, it made no sense to her. Maybe she should open the envelope, ah well, it could wait. He would kill her anyway, why do what he asked first if there was nothing in it for her. She had been wishing she was dead for so long, but she just couldn't do it herself, they had saved her, and only her, so she could live a normal life, so she could make something of herself. True, she hadn't made anything of herself, had no joy in living, but she could never kill herself, not while they had died for her. Besides, getting killed by a madman sounded a lot more exciting than taking too much pills. She did wonder, what would he want her to do? Why would he want _her_ to do it?

Still, she decided to get some sleep first.

But she couldn't sleep. She looked at her alarm clock, 5.30 am. She had been coming in about 4, how time flies when you're thinking about your own death.

Outside, she heard a bird sing. She didn't even know birds could survive in Gotham, but still, there it was. And the worse thing, she knew exactly what she had to do to get a good night's sleep, just open the damn envelope. It was on her nightstand, she picked it up. The front was empty, she turned it around. On the back was a bright red smile. 'Damn, he's crazy' she thought, right before she fell asleep.

**~*~**

Her head, her fucking head, oh how much it hurt. It was hot, and her head hurt. She slowly opened her eyes. Half of her vision was blurred. It was hot, and her head hurt, _and_ she was going blind… Could things possibly get any better?

She grabbed at her hurting head and discovered the reason for her sudden blindness. An envelope blocked almost all of her sight. Reality kicked in and she sat up quickly. Too quickly as it turned out, her head seemed to explode and implode at the same time, the room turned and she dropped back on her pillow.

After a few minutes she slowly sat back up again and pulled herself out of her bed. She staggered to the kitchen and opened the fridge, grabbed a microwave dinner and put the timer on 10 minutes. Argh, 10 whole minutes to wait for some stupid warm up spaghetti, not even real breakfast. Well, at least it gave her some time to do something against her incredible thirst. She grabbed a large glass and filled it with water. She finished it at one gulp. Surely a glass wasn't going to work. She turned on the faucet again and put her mouth against the cold stream of water. The cold water was refreshing on her hot face, it seemed to clear her head a bit. She stopped drinking and just let the water cover her face and form drops in her hair. Then she heard the magnetron beep.

After shoveling down her absurd breakfast (well, lunch if you considered the time) she walked back to her bed. The envelope was laying on the ground next to her bed, where it had landed after she had sat up so suddenly. She opened it and started to read.

_**Work. What do you get from it? Money? Yes, of course! Status? That only depends. Fulfillment? Usually not…**_

_**Time for us to combine work and pleasure, don't you agree? You can't work without a little play! And play is just what I do best! Time for you to join the party!**_

_**Now, this game starts Monday morning. As you probably know, I've got many enemies, and I'd really like to have one less. You will find everything you need in your drawer at work. Now, if you play my game properly, I might have other purposes for you and you get to live a little longer. Otherwise, well, you know. **_

_**Enjoy!**_

She read it twice, but still didn't completely understand. Why would the joker need her? If he wanted to kill someone at her work, why didn't he do it himself? Everyone knew he enjoyed killing, why let someone else do it for him?

And why, now she thought of it, didn't she even know he was out of prison. She had heard all about how they arrested him after he blew up a hospital and played some kind of social experiment on a boat, it was all over the news. If someone like him escaped prison, wouldn't the whole press be over it in a matter of seconds? She decided that either he escaped and for some bizarre reason no one knew, or the higher placed people knew, and they tried to cover it up.

But, somehow, for the first time in years, she was intrigued. That weekend, she couldn't stop thinking about it. She spend her weekend doing what she usually did, basically nothing. Watching some tv, getting some groceries, sleeping. But throughout everything, the joker was in the back of her mind. She didn't know what it was. 'Maybe', she thought, as she fell asleep on Sunday evening 'this is just the thing I need to make me feel alive again.' This was of course, the most ridiculous thought she had ever had. She probably had to kill someone, only to be killed herself afterwards. But maybe that was it, the possibility of dying could actually be reviving her.


	3. all work and no play

**Alright, third chapter here. I know there hasn't been a lot of the joker in them yet, but I promise that will change. I hope y'all like it this far, let me know and of course, also let me know if you know anything to help me make it better!**

**Chapter 3: All work and no play**

She woke up half an hour before her alarm would go off. Now she knew there was something wrong with her, that had never happened before, well, at least not in the years she always referred to as 'after'. 'Before' she might have woken up early on special occasions, when something exciting was going to happen that day, like going on vacation or when she had an exam she was nervous about. And she was nervous, she didn't think she would even remember what it felt like. Her heart was beating rapidly and she had a funny feeling in her stomach.

She couldn't sleep anymore, so she decided to just get out of bed and get ready. Looking in her closet she saw her black short pencil skirt and decided that was what she was going to wear. She liked the skirt, but usually didn't wear it, because she didn't want all of the male clients looking at her all day, men were just so simple-minded. To top it off she picked out her red shirt with buttons on the front. Might as well look nice on your last day alive. Then she went and did her make-up. The usual mascara and eyeliner didn't feel right to her this morning, she decided to put some eye shadow on as well, and a little lipstick. She brushed her hair and was about to put it the usual bun, but thought about it and made it into a ponytail instead.

Standing back and looking in the mirror, she had to suppress a little scream of surprise. She looked like 'before'. Her long blond hair tied up in the ponytail that used to be her signature style, her make-up was done like she always used to do it and most importantly, her eyes seemed to be alive again. She felt tears prickling in her eyes, but suppressed them. Maybe this was how it was supposed to be like, when she died, she would look just like she did when she still felt alive. And even more, this was the closest to crying she had come in years. 'This could be what Oprah used to call a 'full-circle moment'.' She thought cynically.

She was all ready to go, but her clock said she still had half an hour left. She didn't even think about eating, she was simply to nervous. So she just sat there and thought. It surely was strange to adjust to feeling things she hadn't felt in such a long time. Nervousness, excitement, relief and even sadness seemed to take turns in her head. Now she knew why she had stopped feeling, feelings were just too confusing and painful.

~*~

It was only a fifteen minute walk from her apartment to her work, but it seemed much longer, especially today. She did notice she was drawing a lot of attention today, but wasn't sure she wanted to.

When she finally arrived at her job she was still ten minutes early. She decided to stand outside for a while and smoke another cigarette, which turned into two. This she also remembered from 'before', when she had an exam or presentation at school, she would always smoke away like her life depended on it.

Well, today certainly was a day for remembering wasn't it. Luckily she would soon be cleared of all thoughts and memories. And she thought it was probably good to feel alive on the last day you were, well, alive.

"Well, good morning to you Laura, you look… different." Ah, Chris, always a suck-up. She faked her best smile and turned around. "Hi Chris, good different or bad?" She said, making her smile as flirtatious as she could. "Definitely good, you look… Amazing." He said, after which he actually looked at the ground. Did she make him shy? He was never shy. Usually he was just a stuck up high class doctor like her boss. She really was like her old self today, and she couldn't deny she enjoyed it. She gave him a quick smile over her shoulder as she walked away.

She walked towards her desk now, her heart was beating way too fast. She actually started to feel a bit faint. It was horrible, yet thrilling. She sat down and slowly opened her drawer. Acting like she was just adjusting to another day at work, she looked inside the drawer. At first she didn't even see it, then her eyes fell on a small device in the corner.

It was a small device with an antenna and a key you could turn. She was sure it had to be a detonator. She slowly moved it to the middle of her drawer. Then she saw a note that was under it. It just said one thing:

12.30

"By the way, did you hear?"

She almost jumped and shut her drawer with at loud BANG. She looked up, there was Chris again, apparently he had found his confidence back. The two offices were next to each other on the same floor of the complex and somehow Chris always felt the need to 'drop by'.

She gave him a puzzled look "hear what?"

"About the Joker." He said.

She shook her head. "No, what about him"

"Well, they said on the news he killed himself in his cell in Arkham last night, seems he found some gasoline or something and set himself on fire. They say he hadn't been acting like himself the last few days, being in that place for more than a week must have made him loose his mind, I mean, even more or something."

"Oh well, that's good news than, we don't have to worry about him anymore." She said, giving him her most convincing smile.

He returned her smile with one of his very own toothpaste commercial ones and moved to her side of the desk.

"You, uhm, want to have lunch together today?"

"Ehm, I don't know Chris, I've got a lot of things to do today, some other day, ok?" Damn, why did this loser have to ask her out to lunch, didn't he see she had something to do around lunch-time?

"Sure, have a nice day Laura."

"You too Chris." Now get the fuck out of my way.

~*~

Being a high class doctor's secretary sucked. All day long, doing nothing else but be polite to people and putting on your sweet voice, while your boss's clients where all staring down your shirt. Luckily for her, this was her last day.

Time crawled by, phones were answered, letters were typed, e-mails were send. Then finally, it was 12.15. A man walked in. He was a very familiar looking man with a moustache.

"Good afternoon, I'm here to see Dr. Roberts." He said.

"Yes of course…" She looked at Dr. Roberts' schedule, "Mr. Gordon. I'll let him know you've arrived."

Gordon, Gordon, where did she knew that name from. Then she had it.

"Sorry to bother you sir, but are you commissioner Gordon?" She asked, trying to look awed.

"Yes, although I'm still adjusting to the title."

"And already you've done a great deal for our city. Was it not your team that put the Joker back in jail where he belonged?" Ah, the plot thickens.

He smiled. "Well, we've had a lot of help with that one."

She returned his smile, turned her back on him and walked towards Mr. Roberts's office. She knocked two times and let herself in.

"Mr. Roberts, Mr. Gordon has just arrived for you." She said.

He was sitting at his desk, filling in some paperwork in his unreadable handwriting that she surely had to decipher later on.

"Fine, let him in."

"Ehm, Mr. Roberts, could I have my lunch break a little bit earlier, I forgot to eat breakfast, and frankly, I'm starving." He looked up at her. Something in his eyes told her he just saw she looked different for the first time today. Self-absorbed prick, he had been coming in after her, wishing her good morning, she had been in his office 4 times today and now was the first time he noticed she looked different? Only thing he cared about was squeezing the most money he possibly could out of his privileged clients.

"Sure, Laura, Mr. Gordon is my last client before my own lunch break."

"Thank you Mr. Roberts, I'll be back at 12.45." Like he cared.

"Dr. Roberts is ready to see you now Mr. Gordon." She said.

After he went in, she put on her coat, opened her drawer and put the detonator in her coat pocket. Then she went outside.

She wasn't exactly sure how far she had to be to be safe herself. She wasn't sure why she even cared. She decided to go to the Subway's at the end of the street. It was 12.22.

She ate her sandwich halfway and took the rest outside. It was 12.29. She got a cigarette out of its package and lit it. It was exactly 12.30. She put her lighter back in her coat pocket, turning the key on the detonator inside the pocket as she did this.


	4. Chaos

**Alright, this has got to be the shortest chapter ever written, but it just didn't fit with the ones coming before and after it, so it has to be seperate. I hope you'll still like it.**

**Chapter 4: Chaos**

The whole building she worked in blew up, all 5 floors of it. She could see it perfectly clear from where she stood at the other end of the street. It happened so fast, nothing like you saw in the movie. She could feel the heat even from where she stood.

People were screaming. Bricks were landing on the street. She just stood there, dazed. She couldn't tear her eyes away from it. She had done this, she had caused all this. Why did she not feel guilty? What the hell was wrong with her! But she couldn't figure it out. She just looked, arms limp, cigarette forgotten, smoldering away in her hand.

It seemed to her like she was in a daze for hours, although it couldn't have been more than half a minute. Then suddenly she snapped out of it by the sound of sirens. The police were coming, they were going to question witnesses, and she was still carrying the detonator in her fucking coat pocket.

She looked around her, but the only thing she saw was a trashcan. That had to be the stupidest place ever to hide evidence, but she was desperate. She still had the sandwich in one hand, she took the detonator out with her other hand and as quickly as she could put the detonator in between the sandwich and threw it away.

Then she walked towards the building, staggering as she went. She didn't even have to pretend she was in shock. She was. But not for the reason most people around her were. Not only was she shocked by the fact she really did it. The bigger shock was that she didn't feel a bit of remorse and even that didn't bother her.

So this was what being insane felt like..

She heard people scream everywhere around her. Heard someone say: "The Joker, it has to be the Joker!" Then someone replying "He's dead, don't you know?, then someone else: "But who else would do such a thing."

The Gotham police were already arriving at the scene. No miracle there, there was a police station just two blocks away.

Well, this would require all the acting skills she had. She was confident she could manage, she had faked she was happy to so many people over the years, would it really be any harder to fake she was sad?

**Told you it was short. Don't worry though, the next one is going to be a lot longer, and it's going to feature the Joker agian ;) I'll probably upload it later today, just have to reread and redo it a bit.**


	5. First date

**Ok next chapter, the Joker's finally back, i hope you enjoy reading it!**

**Chapter 5: First date**

It turned out to be a long day. After she told the police she was the secretary of Dr. Roberts, who's last ever client had been commissioner Gordon, she had to answer the same questions over and over again. She only arrived home just before six o'clock.

She opened the door and stepped into her apartment.

The joker was sitting on her bed. He stood up the minute she was inside the room. "Sorry I was a little bit early for uhm.. _date_." He said, emphasizing the 't' and combing his hair back with his gloved hands.

"How did you get in?" She asked.

"Ah well, let's just say.. I've been here before." He grinned. "But we have no time to talk, come on, sit, sit" He said, walking back to her bed and sitting down again.

She walked over to the bed and looked at him, "Now what?"

"Turn on your uh… television there." He said, gesturing at her small tv.

She grabbed the remote from her bedside table and turned on the tv. The six o'clock news had just started.

"Panic in Gotham city this afternoon after a massive explosion destroyed a prominent building in the business center of the city. At 12.30 this afternoon people in this busy street were witnesses of what seems to be a terrorist attack. This is a video made by one of the witnesses."

The joker was now sitting on the edge of the bed, staring intently at the screen. On the screen was some very bad quality footage of the building just a few seconds after the explosion. Now the joker was bouncing up and down on the bed. "This is great, don't you just love it, it gets better every time!" He said, laughing like a lunatic, well, of course, he was a lunatic.

"The Gotham police department suspect this to be a reprisal for the death of the joker just two days ago. This is based mainly on the fact that commissioner Gordon, who arrested the joker four weeks ago, was one of the explosions seventy-eight victims."

The news went on to another topic. She turned to the joker, "Alright, it's over, when are you going to kill me?"

His eyes went big and he started to laugh again. "I told you, if you did this, I would let you live a little longer, but you do seem very… _eager._" His knife came out of his pocket again, in such a smooth move she didn't see where it came from. He put the tip of it under her chin.

"Now, now, I thought _I_ was strange, but you make no sense at all. Why did you blow up that building if you thought I would kill you?"

Why did she do it? She didn't do it to save her life. Her life had no meaning to her anymore. But then…

"ANWER ME!!" He hissed at her.

"I – I – I - just wanted to know what it was like…" She whispered. It was the truth, but she couldn't believe she'd just said that.

"Oh, you know exactly what to say to a guy don't you?" He licked his lips yet again "Tell me… What was it like?"

His intense eyes were fixed on hers. He had a greedy look in them.

But she couldn't answer, she didn't know what it was like. She knew she didn't feel guilty about it, or guilty about not feeling guilty, as you sometimes heard. But she honestly didn't know what she felt. all she knew was that she didn't feel how she was supposed to, or like she had felt anytime during the 'after'.

She shook her head, "I honestly don't know.."

He took the knife away from her face and stared at it a few second. All at once he lashed out at her with it. She screamed and drew back. He grabbed her face and put the knife against her cheek.

"_See_, you _do_ want to live. You've changed since Friday. This uh.. must mean… you _did_ like it!"

"No I didn't!!" Did she?

"Hmm.." He said, unbelievingly. "But, look at the time. We have to.. uhm.. _go._"

"Go where?" But he didn't answer. He rolled over to the other side of the bed and grabbed a bag that had been hidden behind it. He spilled the contents over the floor. She just stared at it. On her wooden floor now lay what had probably once been a human being, or maybe several. She could make out some intestines and also a single hand and foot.

"What the fuck is that for?" She asked, still not taking her eyes of the blood and gore that now formed the only decoration on her floor.

"Well, _you said_ you wanted to be death, _right_? _So_ after tonight, you will be dead to the world."

She laughed, "I already am."

"Uhm, yeah, right, but I'm not someone who does things only halfway. Now, wear this." He threw her a long coat and a wig. She looked at it disbelievingly. "Come, come, we don't have much time left."

She put on the coat and put the wig on her head. She couldn't resist looking in the mirror. She laughed, the wig was just so silly, an awful red thing. Combined with the coat she looked like something out of a cartoon. She looked back at the joker. He had already put on a clown mask. He threw her one also, then grabbed her arm and ran out of the apartment.

They ran down two flights of stairs and out the door, where they jumped into the back of a van, which started to drive to the end of the street and then stopped.

"Watch." He told her, motioning towards her apartment building with his dark eyes. She looked out the back window. He looked at his watch. "3…2…1…party time!!"

She saw a minor explosion in her apartment, and as they drove around the corner she could see her drapes catching fire.

Well, no going back now, might as well enjoy the ride.

~*~

They arrived at some forgotten neighborhood at the end of Gotham about half an hour later. It looked like it used to be a pretty prosperous neighborhood a long time ago. She could see some of the buildings falling to ruins, with boards in front of the windows. Also, she saw a lot of homeless people, either searching the trashcans for dinner or getting ready for 'bed', pulling their sleeping bags tightly around them in the cold evening.

The ride had been very quiet. The joker didn't say anything, he just sat at the opposite side of the van, glaring at her, sometimes smiling, sometimes looking death serious, although that was a bit hard to tell with that huge smile painted on his face. She didn't want to talk either, sometimes she'd stare back at him, sometimes she just looked out the window in back of the van, staring at streets she had never seen before.

They drove past a rusted gate towards what appeared to be an old mansion. The van parked in back of it, out of sight from the streets.


	6. Home

**Alright, this one might be a bit boring, sorry, but it's neccesary to get to know the characters.**

**Chapter 6: Home**

They got out the back of the van and entered the house through a backdoor, which seemed to come out in the kitchen. They walked through the kitchen's double doors and through a restaurant. Past there was a huge hall with a stairway leading to the floors above and a very large skeleton of some kind of dinosaur. There were some display cases in the hall as well, but most of it was empty.

"What is this place?" She asked the joker, who was walking next to her.

"Ah Laura, how disappointing of you. You see, this used to be a museum, but people just don't care about _culture_ anymore." He grinned.

"Now, in here, come on." He gestured towards a door that had a sign on it saying 'staff only'. She walked in. There were five men sitting on couches in what had once been a staff recreation room. They all turned around and stiffened as they saw the joker walk in.

"Good evening gentlemen. This here beauty, is our latest _acquisition_." He shoved Laura forward. "Now go on, mingle. Oh and guys, _play nice now_"

He turned quickly and left.

She saw them all looking at her like she was some kind of freak and suddenly she realized she was still wearing the stupid wig and coat.

"So, what's your specialty?" One of the men asked her. He was a huge, muscular guy with a face like a mad dog.

"Specialty, how do you mean?" She didn't really think anything about her was special.

"Yeah you know, like, me, I'm good with intimidating people, I can basically get them to do anything I want them to. And Twitchy here," He slapped the back of the guy next to him, who was shaking all over and staring around like he could be attacked any second, "He's the master of design, he knows exactly where to place the explosives so the whole building collapses, he's a regular showman with explosives."

"So, what you do best?" He smirked.

"uhm, I, don't know…" She said.

They all stared at her disbelievingly. "come on, what do you usually work with, how many people have you killed?"

"ehm, I think the news said it was 78, but I didn't really do anything, I just, pushed the button."

They all laughed, she didn't quite get the joke.

"well," the dog-faced man said, "that's not bad… for a girl." The others laughed again.

She forced a smile and took off the wig and coat.

"Ah, now I see what your specialty is." A scrawny guy with hunting eyes in the corner said. The others all laughed again.

"Well, I sure hope that joker guy wants to share, he usually doesn't allow girls here." The dog-faced man said.

"Don't even think about it." She said, glaring at him.

This obviously didn't impress him, since he started laughing. He got off the couch and walked towards her. "Now you listen to me, I'll think and _do_ whatever the _fuck _I want to!" He grabbed her shoulders and drew her close to her. Damn, he had to be the strongest, ugliest man she ever saw, "You better remember it, whatever I say, you do." He breathed in her face, his breath smelled of alcohol and tobacco. "Do you understand?"

She nodded, if he held her shoulders one more second she would be crushed. He let go of her, she took a deep breath.

"Now come on miss, sit down." A boy who couldn't be more than seventeen years old told her, motioning at the free spot on the couch. She sat down next to him, feeling very uncomfortable with all those eyes staring at her.

"So, uhm, I'm Max, and you've already met Twitchy and Bull there. That's Luke, or The Look, whichever you please." He pointed at the guy with the creepy eyes. "And we don't know that guy's name, only that he really likes to watch things burn.." He pointed towards the man sitting almost pressed with his nose to the television set, watching some porn flick "And porn." He smiled.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Max. I'm Laura". She smiled, seemed like this guy was the only normal person in the room. Well, she had still been sane at seventeen years old , everything only started to crumble when she was about twenty, five long years ago..

"So, this is all of you then?" She asked.

"Nah," Max answered, "You know, we gain some, we lose some, also, the joker hires men to do just one job. At the moment it's just us and Larry, the one who drove you here, but he's out getting dinner, he drives all the way to the expensive part of town to get the food, he's afraid fast food might have germs." At this all the guys sniggered.

"He's afraid of germs, and yet he works for the Joker?" She asked unbelievingly.

Max smirked. "Yeah, why do you think it's so unbelievingly clean here," he gestured around, "he cleaned everything up as soon as he got here, the place is spotless."

"So the Joker just hired him to clean up the place, doesn't sound a bit like him."

"Nah, that's just his compulsion. He's actually great with computers and television, he knows how to hack computers faster than anyone else can and broadcasts all the jokers live messages and things like that."

They sat silent for a couple of minutes. Her mind was pretty blank. She just sat there and looked at them all, all freaks. She hadn't noticed anything weird about Max yet, but he worked for the joker, so he was probably just as crazy as the rest of them.

Suddenly the door banged open. Twitchy gave a small squeal. A tall man with neatly combed back hair walked in, he was carrying Chinese food cartons.

"Dinnertime!" He said cheerfully, then he saw Laura sitting there, "Well, I don't believe we've met yet, I'm Larry."

"Hi I'm Laura." She said, sticking out her hand. He looked at it suspiciously and didn't take it.

She pulled her hand back, confused.

The food was put on the table and everyone grabbed some. There were chopsticks on the table, she looked at them. She didn't know how to use them. But that didn't turn out to be a problem, all the guys, except for Larry, were eating their noodles with their hands, she joined them. Larry just sat in his chair and shook his head, looking at them.

"So, where are you sleeping?" Larry asked her.

"Ehm, I don't know…" She answered, she hadn't even thought about it yet.

"She's sleeping in the minerals room," the guy called Bull growled, "boss's orders."

"The minerals room? But it isn't clean! Why didn't anyone bother to tell me, I need to clean it right away!" Larry stood up and walked towards the door.

Max smirked at her, she let out a small giggle.

She had already fallen asleep on the couch when Larry came back in again. "Room's clean." He announced, "Now can't you guys clean up your own mess just once." He said, looking at the cartons on the table.

"I'll show you your room." Max said. She looked around the room. Twitchy and the Bull had already left. The guy with the scary eyes was still looking at her and the nameless guy had fallen asleep with his face against the television.

They walked along the hall and up the stairs to the right and then towards the right end of the corridor.

"This is your room." Max said, "You can lock it from the inside, and I suggest you do, the joker might have a key, but at least it'll keep Bull out. You know, you should really watch out for him, he's done more horrible things than you could imagine."

"I will, thanks Max." She said, and the smile on her face was genuine, which scared her more than anything that had happened that day.

She opened the door and turned on the light switch next to it. It was a very long room with a lot of display tables inside. She locked the door with the key that was inside it and walked along the tables, they were filled with all kinds of stones. After the second row she saw a mattress on the floor. Must be her place to sleep. She took off her skirt and blouse and tossed them on the floor, then she fell on the bed, covering herself with the blanket and falling asleep almost immediately.

**I hope this wasn't too boring... It's possible someone recognizes the museum, i've based it on the Natural History Museum in London, i think it's an amazing building.**


	7. Damn those eyes

**Ok, next chapter here. Sorry it takes me so long to get to the 'good stuff' but i just love sexual tension, probably the reason i can't stick to a guy for more than a few months... ah well, anyways, here's the next one:**

**Chapter 7: Damn those eyes**

The following morning Laura was awakened by rapid knocking at the door. She got up, and walked towards the door, only then realizing she had slept in her underwear. The joker was standing in front of the door, a big smile on his face.

She ran back to the bed, picked her clothes off the floor and slipped into them. Then she walked back to the door and opened it.

"Good morning beautiful," he said, "what a great way to start the day, don't you agree?" He didn't wait for her to reply, instead he pushed a bundle of clothes into her arms.

She put the bundle on a nearby display table and lifted up the top one. It was a black dress and it was gorgeous.

"How did you know my size, and where did you get this?" She asked.

The Joker smiled, "I've been in your apartment before, _remember_, I need you to look nice for what I want you to do for me."

She moved a little bit closer to him, not really thinking about it, "And what is it you want me to do?" She asked.

"It's a surprise, but don't worry beautiful, you'll find out soon enough." He took a step closer to her and put his hand through her hair, grabbing the back of her neck, "for now, I just need you to stay put like a good little girl, I'll be out today, so you and the guys have fun now." He said, breathing in her face.

She stared up into his eyes, his incredible, unreadable, indefinable eyes. She felt herself going weak. He looked back at her with the most intense stare she had ever seen. She couldn't help releasing a quiet moan. The joker smiled. Then suddenly he let go of her, making her fall on the floor, and walked away.

She just lay there, dazed. She was feeling warm and yet shivery all over. But most of all, she felt rejected, she wanted to cry. She couldn't believe that for a second there she had wanted him to want her. There was something terribly wrong with her.

She decided to look at the dresses to cheer herself up, and they surely did. They were all absolutely stunning. She picked them up one by one. There was a soft-pink colored strapless dress, a red one with an open back, an emerald green halter dress, a white strapless dress with a purple band across the waist and two black dress, one with a keyhole cut and the other one an elegant dress with short sleeves. 'Too bad it's only 40 degrees outside' she thought with a sigh. She decided she did need a shower before putting any of these beautiful dresses on. But first, breakfast.

She got down to the staff room, but no one was there. Crashing into the couch she decided to have a cigarette first. As she was sitting there smoking, the guy called Twitchy walked in. He started as he saw here, and then looked at the cigarette.

"You don't want to do that here, Larry will throw a fit." He said, his eyes moving rapidly across the room.

"Ah well, it's his problem, not mine." She said, putting out her cigarette on a plate that was standing on the table. "But I'm guessing he's not even here, because this plate is," she joked.

"No, him and Bull and the boss had some business to attend to." Twitchy replied, "Don't worry, I'm sure they'll be back soon, they wouldn't tell anyone we are here, would they?" He asked nervously.

She smiled at him, must suck to be so nervous all the time, "No I'm sure they won't, the Joker couldn't just walk in a police station and tell them some guys were hiding in an old museum, they'd probably shoot him on sight." She replied.

"Oh, yeah, right…" Twitchy said, but it didn't seem to make him any less nervous.

"So, where's the rest then?" She asked.

"Kitchen, I think they're waiting for you."

So she walked over to the kitchen, retracing her steps from when she came in yesterday.

Max and Luke were standing over the counter, reading something. They looked up when she came in.

"Well, well," the Look said when he saw her, "guess our little princess made the news today." He smiled, his eyes were all over her body, making her shiver in disgust.

Max shoved the newspaper in her hand.

She read

_**IMPORTANT WITNESS IN GOTHAM EXPLOSION KILLED.**_

_**Laura de Jong, 25 years old, an important witness of the explosion that destroyed the Patton building in the city's center, was killed herself yesterday evening. She fell victim to another terrorist attack, when an explosive went off in her kitchen, causing her apartment to catch fire. Other residents of the apartment complex could be evacuated and have taken refuge at family members and shelters. **_

_**The fire brigade could prevent most of the damage to other apartments, but when they entered de Jong's apartment, they found the remains of the young woman. Security cameras show footage of two persons in clown masks running out of the building just before the explosion. This confirms the police's suspicions that the explosion yesterday was a retaliation for the Joker's death this weekend.**_

_**This was also confirmed when police found a detonator similar to the ones the Joker used to use. This detonator was found in a trashcan in the same street as the Patton building. **_

The article then went on about the explosion yesterday. She put the paper down.

"Well, now that I'm officially dead, how about some coffee?" She said, smiling. Max gave her a cup and a bowl of cereal.

She ate her cereal standing up. She almost couldn't stand the tension. On the one hand there was Luke, who kept staring at her with those unimaginably creepy eyes, on the other hand was Max, who was also looking at her with what seemed to be a mixture of worry and thoughtfulness. She just looked at her cereal and coffee until both were gone. Then she asked Max if there was a shower somewhere.

"Sure, follow me." He said.

She followed him along different exhibition rooms and they came to a men's restroom. She looked at it suspiciously.

"We remodeled it a bit, put some showers in there, we haven't made one for women yet, you heard what Bull said, the Joker doesn't normally allow women in here. Now, after you've cleaned up come to the staff room, we've got a lot to do today."

He left and Laura watched him walk away, he wasn't as nice to her as he'd been yesterday.

She opened the door and stepped in. The inside was totally different than she'd expected. There were marble floors and beautifully decorated walls. It was also very big. In front of her was a big Jacuzzi, on the right were four shower stalls and on the left were all kinds of shampoo and towels.

She grabbed some soap and shampoo at random and a towel. Then she went back to the showers. She stepped inside the first one and removed her clothes.

The hot water felt wonderful on her skin. But it gave her time to think about where she was heading.

Here she was, in some deserted museum with what where probably Gotham's most wanted criminals and psychopaths. But it was her own choice, she had decided to live and blow up that building. This thought shocked her; she had decided to live! Sure, she had decided to live over and over again while contemplating suicide, but this was something entirely different. She hadn't committed suicide because she felt it would be unfair to the ones who gave their lives for her, but she had always thought that when the time came she would die, she would embrace it. 'This is what I choose,' she thought, 'this is what I want. Maybe, I just want other people to feel what I felt, because they didn't understand. Sure, they pretended to understand, but they just didn't, they didn't care enough to even try to understand. Well, a lot of people are going to understand exactly how I felt.'

She smiled, she had never gotten revenge. She had wanted to, but she couldn't find the people responsible and neither did the police. And of course, that was just because they didn't look hard enough, they didn't care enough, nobody did. Someone must have recognized the sketches on the news, they were just protecting those horrible men, their own lives were obviously more important to them than anything else. Well, two can play that game, she decided her only priority from now on had to be her own life and feelings. And she would be happiest alone, so all other people just had to go!

She dried off and put on the dress, then she went to the mirror to check on herself. The dress fit her perfectly. She had picked the black one with the short sleeves. It looked classy, but still sexy. Only thing wrong about it was that it showed her bra and panty lines. "Well, you can't wear the same underwear two days in a row anyway." She said to the empty room as she took of her panties and bra and put them in a trashcan. She blow-dried her hair. This bathroom was perfect, she hadn't even had a blow-drier in her own apartment. 'The only thing missing is make-up' she thought as she closed the door behind her.

**Ok, i've been trying to get chapter 8 online, but there's some kind of upload error. i'll upload as soon as i can.**


	8. Presents

**Finally managed to get this one online. I want to thank sugar coated bullets for reviewing, and also a thanx to the people who put the story on their alert list, keeps me motivated:) If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, please review or PM me. Now enjoy the next one**

**C****hapter 8: Presents**

When she walked into the staff room Max was sitting there. He was wearing a black suit and tie, it made him look a lot older.

"Wow, look at you." He said, smiling. Apparently he was in a good mood again, maybe he was just not a morning person.

"Well, same to you, what's the occasion?" She asked.

"We're going shopping," he said, standing up " Care to join me gorgeous?" He offered her his arm, which she took.

They walked out the enormous front doors and now she saw there was a car parked in the driveway. Well, not just any car, it was an Aston Martin Vanquiss, one of her favorite cars when she'd still cared about those kinds of things.

"Wow, who did you steal that from?" She joked as he opened the door for her.

"I bought it." He answered and slammed the door shut.

"How many banks did you have to rob to buy it?" Laura asked as he took place at the driver's seat.

"I didn't have to rob any banks,"

"What? How old are you? How can you afford this?"

"I'm 18, and I inherited the money and some buildings, like the one we just left, from my parents"

"Oh," She couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Never heard of the Marcus family? My parents were among the wealthiest people in Gotham. Then, when I was just one year old, they just disappeared, no one ever heard from them again. I inherited everything when they were declared legally dead seven years later. So now I'm Gotham's youngest millionaire, the boy who has it all, well, except for parents obviously." He said sarcastically.

"Oh," she said again, "I'm sorry for you."

He smiled at her, "Thanks, didn't mean to ruin the mood there, but I thought you should know before we go into the jungle of luxury shopping. Oh, by the way, your name, it's Dutch right?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Looked it up, I had to know what kind of name I had to make up for you. What do you think about Iris van Dijk, billionaire's daughter, visiting her good friend Max Marcus."

She giggled, "I think it's perfect!"

"So, what do you need most?" Max asked as they got out of the car. She felt the cold wind against her arms and shivered "Definitely a coat."

They walked through the doors of a big clothing store.

"Good afternoon Mr. Marcus, how have you been?" The saleswoman that immediately rushed at them asked.

"Fine, thank you Maria. This is my friend Iris van Dijk, she just flew in from Dubai and didn't count on the cold weather. We'd like to find her a coat."

"Very well. Mr. Marcus, Miss van Dijk, please follow me."

They walked towards the end of the shop. "What did you have in mind, Miss van Dijk?" The woman asked.

"I haven't really had time to think about, as long as it's warm, and fashionable."She said.

"In that case, I've got some coats that just came in this morning in the back, I think I have the perfect one for you, would you like me to bring it out for you?"

She looked at Max, he nodded.

"Yes please, thank you Maria."

A few moments later Maria came out with a long white coat. "This would fit you beautifully"

Laura put the coat on and looked in the mirror. It was a beautiful coat, she couldn't tell what made it special. It was a pretty plain, knee length white coat, but it was cut beautifully and the fabric was soft and looked amazing.

She smiled at Maria, "this one will do just fine, thank you."

"Do you need anything else miss?"

Turned out she did. They left the store with the coat, three different handbags, a scarve and silk gloves.

"Alright, now let's find you some shoes." Max said.

They arrived back at the museum with about two dozen bags.

"That was the most insane shopping spree I've ever been on." Laura said, "Thank you so much Max." She kissed him on the cheek.

They walked towards the museum, loaded with bags. She had bought basically everything a person would ever need: Shoes, jewelry, make-up, a cell-phone and the clothes.

~*~

The Joker didn't come back that day, or the next one. The others had also left, saying the Joker needed their help with something. It was pretty boring to stay in the museum alone for so long. She walked around, looking at all the expositions. The place was huge. But some of the doors were locked, she guessed they had to be the bedrooms of the others. When she had explored every corner, the first day had passed. The next day she just sat in front of the tv, 'damn,' she thought, 'nothing has changed.'

Finally, on Thursday, as she was having breakfast in the kitchen, she heard a huge rumble outside. She walked out the door and saw four large trucks pulling around the corner. The Joker stepped out the front one.

"Well, hello there beautiful, enjoy yourself while I was gone?" He asked.

She walked towards him. "No, I was bored to death." She said.

"Well, you're in luck, this is where the fun starts."

"Good, what's in the trucks?"

"Ah… Just some things we need to have fun." He said, walking to the back of the truck and opening it. The thing was loaded with all kinds of weapons and explosives.

"Nice," she grinned, "did you bring anything for me?"

He grabbed her chin and caressed her lips with his thumb, "don't worry, you'll get what you want."

"Now," he turned around towards the other, who had also gotten out of their trucks, "time to move this." Then he walked away towards the museum.

'Lazy bastard.' Laura thought.

~*~

They spend the rest of the day getting everything out of the trucks and moving it to a storage room in back of the museum. The Joker didn't return.

At the end of the day she was tired and famished. When Larry arrived with the food she ate until she felt she was going to explode. After she had wished everyone good night she walked up to her room. When she got there the Joker was sitting on of one of the display tables with his legs crossed. When he saw her he jumped of it.

"Good evening Laura, you wouldn't go to bed without your present now would you?" He asked, presenting a gift box from behind his back. She immediately noticed he had no gloves on.

She opened the box and gasped. Inside it was a Magnum gun with scroll engraving on the metal. The wooden handle was engraved with a curly L.

She looked up at the Joker, "This is amazing. Thank you so much." she whispered.

"One more thing." He smiled, and pulled something out of his coat pocket. At first sight she thought it was a big rubber band.

"What's that?" She asked.

He didn't answer, instead he grabbed her waist with both hands and lifted her onto the nearest display table. For a moment he held her on the table, standing between her legs, holding her waist. Then he backed away and grabbed her foot. He lifted it up and put what she now recognized as some kind of holster around her leg. He moved it from her ankle to her knee, and then to her thigh. Her breath sped up at the touch of his hands against her leg.

He then took the gun out of her hands and put it in the holster.

"Wow," Laura said, after the gun was in place, "I thought those things only existed in movies, to make the heroine look more slutty."

"But Laura," the Joker said, moving his hand up, "you _are_ a slut. Look at what you're wearing. Or should I say, _not_ wearing." His fingers were moving up and down between her legs, making her moan.

"No I'm not," she said, "I can't help it if your clothes don't allow room for underwear."

He grabbed her clit between two fingers and squeezed it, hard. She yelled out in pain.

"Don't deny what you are Laura, you're not as special as you think you are, you're just like _all_ the others."

Tears of pain were in her eyes now. "Please, no more." She whimpered.

"Say it then, tell me what you really are!"

"I, I'm a slut." She whispered.

"Good girl." The Joker said, releasing her clit and walking away, leaving her crying on the table.

All of a sudden her vision was blurred by incredible rage. She grabbed the gun out of its holster.

"JOKER!!" She yelled as he opened the door.

He looked at her. She pulled the trigger.


	9. Wheels in motion

**Alright, first of all a big thanks to hells_author and Dreykar for taking the time to read and review this story, i can now officially say i love getting reviews;) i do feel bad that i haven't reviewed any stories yet myself, mostly because i don't want to read too many other stories and be influenced by them, it would feel like stealing to me. But i promise that when this story is finished i will read and review my ass off! Now this chapter was very hard to write, i hope it doesn't show too much that i didn't have a lot of fun with it, but it also has some highly relevant things in it, so i just had to write it. I hope you still like it, and if you don't, the next chapter is gonna be better;)**

**Chapter 9: Wheels in motion**

The bullet shattered the glass two feet to the Joker's left.

"Hmm…" He said, raising his eyebrow at her, "you really need to learn how to aim."

He chuckled and, before she knew it, he was gone.

She was furious. Fucking bastard! How could he say those things to her. He didn't know anything about her! The last person who'd called her a slut had gotten off a lot worse than almost being shot.

She fired the gun at one of the tables and shattered the glass. She walked along the rows, shooting another table. She'll show him!

She tried to shoot a table at the far end of the room, but ended up shooting the table next to it.

"FUUUUUUUCK!!" She screamed, trying two more times to shoot the table before she heard a click. Fucking gun only held 6 rounds, what the fuck was that?

Her anger grew with every second. Not only had the bastard insulted her, he had also given her a worthless gift which she couldn't even use, _and_ was out of rounds before she even got started. She walked to the nearest table and turned it over, it was heavy, but she managed. The glass shattered and stones rolled across the ground.

But nothing helped to release her anger. She walked around the room, screaming at the top of her lungs, throwing over the tables. Then she heard a voice in back of her.

"What are you doing?"

She turned around. Max was standing in the doorway, hands on his hips, giving her a questioning look.

"Can't you see I'm busy?" She yelled at him, "Leave me alone!"

He walked towards her, until they were standing face to face.

"You need to get your temper under control." He said, grabbing her hands, "This isn't doing anyone any good."

She looked in his eyes and again felt tears wanting to come out.

"It's not fair," she cried, "he can't say such things to me."

"Come on," Max said, putting her head against his chest, "It's alright, don't let him get to you, that's what he wants."

She sobbed into his chest. He lifted her face and dried her tears with his sleeve.

"Better?" He asked.

She nodded.

"Now, get some rest, you'll feel better tomorrow." He told her. "Do you need anything?"

"I need more ammo." She said, forcing a small smile. "He told me I need to learn how to aim, and I will."

"Fine," Max said, "but you have to promise me not to throw a fit like this anymore, you'll make it far too easy for him to control you. Can you promise me that?"

She nodded again.

"Now, get some sleep, you'll need it." With that, he left.

She sat there for a while, smoking. Luckily she had bought a whole lot of cartons when they were shopping, she really needed them if the Joker kept pissing her off like this.

~*~

The next morning she woke early, she looked at her brand new Gucci watch and saw it was 6.30. Just as good a time as any to start practicing.

She got dressed, putting on the holster with the gun as well. She walked to the staff room and sat down. The gun was extremely uncomfortable as she walked or sat down, she could feel it against the inside of her leg all the time, but she couldn't think of another place to put it.

Then she noticed a large box on the table. It said 'Laura' on the label. She opened it and was happy to see it was full of magnum rounds. At least that was a good thing, she didn't have to wander the storage room, looking for bullets.

She got to the back of the museum, out the kitchen door and thought for a second. Would it be bad to start practicing here? The museum was on the outer parts of Gotham and surrounded by a large field at the back and sides, but at the front it ended on the street of the neighborhood they had driven through the day she got there, and she had found out the day before that the gun made a lot of noise.

She thought about it a moment longer and decided it would be too big a risk to try it. But where then? Then she remembered the basement. That would be perfect.

She got some bottles and packages out the kitchen and took them to the basement. The next few hours she spend shooting at them.

At first she constantly missed, but after an hour she finally hit a target she was actually aiming for. Now she actually understood how she had to look through it to aim right, it was a lot less difficult. Actually, she couldn't believe how easy it was once she got the hang of it. She also practiced drawing the gun from the holster, which wasn't easy. She had put the holster around her left leg, so she could grab it with her right hand. Still, to grab it she had to lift her dress, and it took quite some time to do that _and _grab the gun without exposing herself.

After all the things she brought from the kitchen were destroyed she continued shooting bricks on the wall, marking them with her lipstick first. That also went pretty well. She hadn't been expecting this at all, she thought she would have to spend days in the cellar, continuing to shoot targets she hadn't even aimed at. Sure, sometimes she still missed by a feet or so, but when she was really paying attention, it almost always went well.

She was just hitting another brick exactly on target when Max walked in.

"Wow, very good, you're a natural!" He said.

Laura smiled.

"But it's time to socialize some more, we've gotta go." He told her.

She pouted, "Do we have to, I was just starting to enjoy this."

"Laura, it's 5.30 p.m. how long have you been down here, have you even eaten anything?" She shook her head. Had she really been here for eleven hours? That was insane, well at least she'd kept her promise about learning how to aim properly.

"Well, you've got half an hour to get ready. Leave the gun here." Max said.

She looked at him questionably, "I can't leave it here, what if someone takes it!"

"I'll put it in the safe for you, now run upstairs and don't forget to take your purse and cell-phone."

~*~

"Where are we going?" She asked as they were sitting in the car.

"We're meeting Bruce Wayne, he's throwing a fund raiser next week for the building of a new police station downtown, and we're going to get an invitation."

"Bruce Wayne, isn't he the billionaire playboy? How will we ever get an invite from him?"

Max smiled. "You'll see."

They were silent for a while. But she felt she had to ask.

"Max, you're a nice guy, how did you get involved with the Joker?"

"I looked for him." He said simply.

"But why?"

"Look," he told her, "all my life I grew up with basically everything I wanted, but it wasn't enough, I didn't feel, _alive_, I needed more. When I saw the Joker on the news, I knew that was exactly what I was missing, so I found him."

They were quiet again. This story wasn't at all what she would've expected from Max, she thought the Joker must have threatened him, but then again, her own reasons were about the same as his, only, she hadn't actually looked for him.

After some time they arrived at a fancy restaurant. Max gave his car to a valet and they went inside.

"Good evening Mr. Marcus, table for two?" A waiter asked.

They were led to a table. Laura could see how Max could get enough of this, those people were all such suck-ups.

Just as they were about to order their food, Max suddenly stood up.

"Bruce Wayne, how have you been?" He said, shaking the hand of a gorgeous man with black hair.

"Max Marcus, haven't seen you in ages, what have you been up to?"

"Well, you know, travelling. Talking about that, have you met my friend Iris?"

At this Laura stood up, "Hi, Iris van Dijk."

"Bruce Wayne, very nice to meet you Iris, any friend of Max is a friend of mine." He said, giving her a slight wink.

"Well, come join us Bruce, we were just about to order."

Bruce Wayne looked a bit embarrassed, "I was just about to go home, had a tiring business meeting, actually, it started as a business lunch, that's how long it took."

"Come on Bruce, I haven't seen you in ages, you said so yourself, join us, we'll go straight to the main course if you like." Max said.

"Well alright then, I guess it wouldn't hurt to be among friendly people for a change." Bruce whistled at the waiter to get him a chair.

"So, tell me, how did you kids meet?" Bruce asked.

"We met at one of my father's hotels in Dubai, Max invited me to come along with him to Gotham." Laura told him. God, acting was great, also one of the things she had really enjoyed 'before', she remembered she had even considered to go to the theater academy, but had decided a medicine study would be a safer option.

"So, how do you like our city?" Bruce asked. She had talked about this in the car with Max, this was her cue.

"I do like it, a little bit crowded. Actually, I wasn't sure I wanted to come here, there's been a lot of bad things about this city on the news, with all these terrorist attacks and such."

"Well," Bruce Wayne said, "I do admit our city has gotten a lot of bad publicity lately, but the Joker is no longer a tread to us and now the police is truly after the Batman, no one is allowed to take matters into their own hands anymore. I personally think our fine policemen will be able to handle everything just fine, but they do need help, and that's actually what I've been wanting to talk to you about Max, I'm throwing a fundraiser for our police force, they need to get their strength back, Gotham has surely suffered through enough, I think it's time for the privileged people to help out and try to make Gotham a better place."

Max agreed with this. This was the direction they had been aiming for. The rest of the conversation was mostly politics. Laura had never really cared about politics, but she tried the best she could to stay in the conversation and even got a few admiring looks from Bruce when she talked about the differences between the Dutch and American legal system. At the end of the evening they were both invited to Bruce's benefit on Wednesday.

"Now Max, I need to ask you something between friends," Bruce said, taking Max aside, "is this lovely lady a love interest of yours, or would it be alright if we would go to the fundraiser together?"

"Well," Max said, "I can't say I haven't tried, but she told me I was too young for her." He sighed, "Guess there are some things money just can't buy, right."

"I know what you mean." Bruce said, and for a moment a dark shadow came over his eyes.

They returned back to Laura, who was already standing outside, smoking of course.

"Max and I were just talking," Bruce said, "and I was wondering if you would like to go to the fundraiser together, it would be nice to have a beauty _with_ brains at my side for once."

Laura smiled, "I'd be delighted!"

"Alright, I'll pick you up around, say, six, Wednesday evening, the fundraiser starts at nine, so I can show you another of our fine city's nice restaurants." He said.

Laura agreed, with the usual pretentious 'lovely' and 'delighted' and they exchanged phone-numbers. She had actually just learned her phone-number out of her head, she hadn't owned a phone in four years.

They said goodbye and Laura kissed Bruce three times on the cheek. "That's how we do it in Holland." She said, smiling. 'Unless it has changed in the last couple of years' she thought.

"Well, that went quite well." Laura said as they were driving back.

Max nodded, moody again she guessed. He looked at her seriously, "Laura, are you happy?" He asked. She shrugged, "I guess, I think I'm happier than before."

Suddenly, Max pulled into the curb, bringing the car to a screeching halt.

"Listen Laura, it's going to get dangerous, you don't know half of what the Joker's planning" He said, looking deep into her eyes, "I can get you out off this, just tell me now. You can still escape."

"No." She said.

"Ok. Fine."

They didn't talk for the rest of the drive.


	10. Bloody mess

**Ok, does it show that i am supposed to be learning for an exam? i think i've actually written more today than any other day so far. Ah well, i thought i might as well upload this, i wanted to make it longer, but as soon as the joker enters i tend to get a bit carried away and make it very very long, he's just so damn interesting, don't you agree?**

**Chapter 10: Bloody mess**

After getting her gun back out of the safe she went directly to bed. She wished Max good night and got some mumbling in return. She actually got quite furious at him when she was lying in her bed thinking about it. Who was he to talk? He had just told her he had joined the Joker voluntarily and the next thing she knows he is mad at her because she doesn't want to escape. Well, fuck him, fuck them all, she would do whatever she liked, she was making the decisions now.

~*~

Waking up the next morning she felt a lot better. She was actually looking forward to practicing shooting again, she was thinking about trying some other weapons from the storage room, just to give it a try.

She was deep in thought as she walked along the corridor when she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around and found herself eye to eye with the guy called Bull. His ugly face was only an inch away from hers.

"Well, well, little lady. I just wanted to talk to you. It seems like we haven't had time to _bond_ yet." He said, grabbing her wrists.

"I'd rather die." She said, and spat in his face.

He actually growled, making the resemblance to a mad dog even stronger. "Well, you know what, what we if do the bonding now, and if you're lucky I'll kill you before you lose your mind."

She tried desperately to free her wrists, but this only made his grip on them tighter. She then stomped on his foot with the heel of her shoe, he screamed, but his grip didn't loosen at all. Instead, he drew her closer to him. She could feel his breath on her neck as he started to lick it. She was sickened to her stomach.

"Let go of me you ugly bastard!" She screamed, surely someone in the building would here her. Only problem was, she didn't know if they would care.

"You say it like it's an insult." He said, bringing his face once again to hers. "As I see it, it's better to be me than you at this moment. You see, it's not all fun and games for our pretty little whore is it?"

She thought she had been mad before, but this drove her crazy. If she were such a slut and whore, why hadn't she had sex in the last three years? Why did they all think they knew anything about her?

"You should shut your fucking mouth and leave me alone." She shouted, she knew it was weak and wouldn't help, but she had to shout something.

He pushed her against the wall. Taking a small step back to look at her body. Then he made a fatal mistake. His hand let go of her right wrist and grabbed her breast. She didn't have time to think, she just did. In a flash she had grabbed her gun from its holster, put it under his chin and pulled the trigger.

The sound was unbearably loud this close to her ears. The recoil threw her arm all the way backward into the wall. She could feel splatters of blood and things she didn't even want to define along her face. She looked down at her dress, trying desperately not to look at the bloody mess that had once been Bull, but still catching too good a glimpse anyway. Her dress was a mess, which made her pretty pissed, as she'd decided just today to go with the white one.

She stumbled back to her room, holding her hurting arm. The only thing she could think about now was a shower. She was about to grab another dress when she saw her hands were also covered in blood. She wiped them on the dress she'd been wearing, no point keeping it clean now, and grabbed a black dress. Then she walked towards the bathroom, trying hard not to look at the figure lying in the corridor. She sure as hell didn't regret shooting him, but his torn head wasn't exactly a pleasant sight.

She stood under the shower for almost half an hour, she just felt so dirty, not only because of the blood, but mostly because she could still feel that dead bastard's touch on her wrists and breast.

'Well, that's my first kill for ya, a bloody mess.' She thought sarcastically, before actually remembering that it had not been her first but her seventy-ninth kill, although this felt more like killing than pushing some button and watching a building blow up.

The shower had refreshed her, and after putting on the clean dress she felt much better. She went down to the staff room, Max was there, along with the guy who had so intently been watching porn the first evening she came there.

Well, that settles it, they had definitely heard her screams, how could they not have, all the corridors were open and the big hall had an amplifying effect. She didn't say anything to either of them, instead she sat down and lit a cigarette.

The guy with no name sat there muttering to himself, sometimes she picked up the word 'bang', which he muttered a little louder than the rest.

Then Larry came in, he looked furious. "Which one of you left that bloody mess on the second floor corridor?" He half screamed.

Laura looked up, "I did."

"You did? Why the hell haven't you cleaned it up then? Do you have any idea what kind of deceases can spread from rotting corpses?"

She couldn't help but laugh. "Come on Larry, he's been dead for like, forty-five minutes, he's not going to decompose straight away."

"That type of thinking is exactly what leads to deceases. Take your smoking, you just think; 'ah one cigarette doesn't kill me' but guess what, one leads to another and then you get all kinds of horrible cell mutations that lead to cancer and you die!" He said, almost foaming at the mouth now.

"Well Larry, you work with electricity don't you, now radiation can also cause mutations that lead to cancer. You can't shield yourself from everything." She said.

"But you can at least try!" He screamed at her.

She giggled and sighed at the same time, he was funny, yet tiring.

"Oh and by the way," Laura said, "I couldn't even move him if I tried, the guy's enormous!"

Larry got a nurse mask out of his jacket, of course he would be the kind of guy who had stuff like that in his coat, she mused.

"For this time, I'll clean up after you, but please try to be more considerate of other people's health!"

He left the room and she followed suit a few moments after, going to the storage room to get guns like she'd planned.

~*~

The rest of the day she spend shooting. She liked some of the guns, hated others, but still thought her own gun was the best. The shotgun came in second, probably because it also made a lot of noise.

As she was trying the AK-47, which made it hard to aim because of the incredible recoil, Twitchy came down. She turned around.

"Please, don't shoot, don't shoot!" He squealed. She lowered the gun. "It's dinnertime, and the boss wants you to have dinner with him."

She shrugged, sure. He was probably mad at her for killing one of his henchmen, well serves him right for putting her in a building with all these idiots.


	11. Tease me, taunt me, turn me on

**Ok, i've finished fucking up my exam so i can turn my focus back to this story. This next chapter features a lot of Joker, i found this one the hardest to write, because it is so hard to keep him in character... you have the whole thing in your head, but it's so hard to describe every movement, change of voice and so on. This chap also has some sex in it (finally) so if you don't like it, don't read it, but then again, if you don't like sex you probably didn't pass the 'are you human' test at login :-P Let me know if you think anything is totally out of character, i'm always open to _constructive _critisism and will alter parts if anyone has a good suggestion. Except for the candle part, i won't change anything about that, it is supposed to be out of character and basically, i like it..**

**Chapter 11: Tease me, taunt me, turn me on**

Twitchy showed her to the Joker's room, he was shaking all the way and left before they even reached the door. She opened it and entered.

"Good evening, Laura," the Joker said. He was sitting at a table for two with his legs apart and his heels together, the room was lit by about fifty candles.

Laura burst out laughing, she laughed so hard tears were streaming down her face. She took a deep breath and looked at the Joker, but seeing him sitting there started another laughing fit. After a few minutes the laughing slowly subsided, leaving only the occasional giggle. The Joker looked at her with a slight smile touching the corners of his mouth.

"Why the hell did you do this?" Laura giggled, "Candle-light dinner? What's next, rose petals on the bed." She laughed at the idea.

"Well, I thought you knew me by now." He said, pretending to be insulted, "I like to see things burn."

"Then you wouldn't mind if I smoke, would you." It was more of a remark than a question and she lit a cigarette straight away. Then she walked over to the table and sat down. "So, what is it you want?" She asked him.

"Laura, Laura, Laura, can't we enjoy a nice dinner together without you interrogating me?" The Joker asked, raising his eyebrows "Now, dig in."

There were spareribs on the table and they started eating them. She looked at the Joker who was ripping away at the meat, at least that fit him.

She looked around the room. Apart from the table there was also a couch, a closet and a king-sized bed. The walls were colored purple and the carpet was green. Everything in the room, including the bed, table, couch, closet, walls and floor was covered in slashes and bullet holes. Really, the only thing that didn't fit were the candles, but obviously he had just put them there to confuse her.

"Now Laura," he said, his voice muffled by the food in his mouth, "Let's talk business."

She nodded, "Sure, go ahead."

"Well," he said, grabbing his glass of wine and finishing it at one gulp, "I just wanted to talk to you about what happened today."

She sighed, here we go, please god, kill me now and be done with it. "He tried to rape me and I shot him, it was self-defense." She said, looking him straight in the eyes. "I had to, I was screaming at the top of my voice and no one even came to look at what was happening."

The Joker chuckled, "Well of course they didn't, my little naïve girl. I told them not to."

She almost choked on her sip of wine, "You what? You told them not to? He could have raped and killed me, and you told them not to help?"

The Joker shrugged, "But he didn't."

"Because I fucking shot him!"

"Yeah you did, I knew you wouldn't disappoint." He grinned.

"You fucking asshole, you let him have his way with me just to see what I would do?"

"Now, now, Laura, don't blow this out of proportion, he's dead, you took care of that."

"You would let me kill one of your men, just to see if I would?" She asked incredulously.

"Yeah."

She shook her head in disbelief, this guy would do anything to confuse her. Telling some guy to rape her in the morning and faking a 'romantic' dinner with her in the evening. Well, she wouldn't let him confuse her, she would just deal with it.

"Now you _do_ need to thank me, beautiful, I did give you the gun before I gave the guy permission to go after you."

"You'll get your thanks in time, _sweetheart_." She said, two could play this game.

He laughed heartily at this, pretending to wipe away a tear at the corner of his eye, "Whoo, Ah Laura, I just love it when you talk dirty to me." He let out another loud laugh.

She didn't reply, just started eating her spareribs again. Her arm hurt like hell, maybe shooting all day after she had just hurt it hadn't been such a good idea after all.

After a while she looked up. "By the way, what you did to me yesterday wasn't any better than what he wanted to do to me." She knew this could turn out all wrong, but she had to say it anyway.

"Ah but Laura, you know I'd never do that, not my style. Rape has nothing to do with chaos, in fact, it's much more chaotic when two people try to satisfy their needs at the same time, don't you agree?" He licked at his scars, "but you insulted my gift, I couldn't just let you do that."

"Well then, I'll just do the same to you when you insult my gift." She said, eying him evilly.

He chuckled, "You do seem to enjoy life more don't you? You remind me of me when I was just starting."

She didn't respond to this, but it did get her thinking. She wasn't like him, was she? She didn't enjoy killing innocent people. She had enjoyed killing Bull, but he was hardly innocent now was he. Come to think of it, no person alive was innocent, they all did things they shouldn't do, or otherwise let things happen that shouldn't happen.

"So, I've got a question for you. What exactly are we going to do at Bruce Wayne's fund raiser?" She asked.

"Ah, finally you start asking the right questions. Well beautiful, there's usually more than one motive to a crime. The first is the presence of all the prominent police department employees in Gotham city, I mean, Gordon went from Lieutenant to Commissioner, who will they appoint next, a rookie? But more important, I want the batman to come out of his little cave again. "

"Why do you want the batman so bad, what is it you want from him?"

He clacked with his tongue, "And I thought you were such a _intelligent_ girl. Well Laura, you see… these so called heroes… are like… _trains_, they just keep following the same tracks." He had gotten a knife out of his pocket and stared intently at it, "I just want to see what happens when the train derails. It's going to be a blast!"

She smiled, "But the train has already derailed, hasn't it. He killed Harvey Dent remember?"

The Joker shook his head forcefully "no, no, no, no, no, Harvey was the one who derailed, they just… covered it up."

Laura stared at him, could this be true? She thought it might be, it made more sense than the batman suddenly turning loony.

She leaned forward, "so, what are you gonna do then?"

The Joker put his face close to hers, "anyone will eventually turn mad, if you push them long enough." He licked his lips and traced the contours of her face with his knife, "look at your pretty face, who would've thought a sweet girl like you would end up blowing up buildings and shooting people," he laughed, "that's the power of chaos."

"I haven't been a sweet girl for a long, long time," she whispered.

"Ah," he said, tracing the knife to her lips, "but you once were and _that_ is exactly my point."

She was about to say she wasn't sure she had ever been sweet, but she had been more or less normal, when he pushed the knife against her lips forcefully, "Shush, shush, shush, shush, you don't have to explain anything, it's all readable right here," he said as he held the knife just an inch away from her right eye. His expression changed from amusement to thoughtfulness when she didn't flinch or draw back.

He got the knife away from her face and aggressively stuck it in the table. "Could you please just act a little bit more intimidated?" He growled, "you're starting to bore me."

She put her lips to his ear and whispered, "bore you, or confuse you?"

She heard him snigger and suck at his scars as he put his own mouth to her ear, "do you like pushing your luck girl? Do you like the fact that I could kill you any second?" His words were harsh, but his voice was soft and strangely exciting. She was starting to feel the same weakness she had felt before.

"Well," she whispered, "I've always had a thing for the bad guys."

He giggled, "And I've always had a thing for _sluts._"

Shit, why did he have to ruin a perfectly good moment like this. She could feel her blood boiling again. In her rage she grabbed the knife that was still sticking out the table and put it against his throat.

"_Never_ say that to me again, or it will be the last thing you say." She hissed at him. He laughed out loud, "I think I found your weakness beautiful. Does it hurt you when I say it to you, or is it just that you secretly know it is true."

"I promised myself I would never let anyone say that to me again and not pay for it." She breathed heavily.

"Well then," he said, grabbing her wrists and plucking the knife out off her hand with incredible ease, "I'll just be the exception to the rule. Because _you need me_, without me, your life would still be miserable and meaningless."

"I don't need anyone." She said, but in her heart she knew it wasn't true.

His grip on her wrists tightened, and he pulled her arms around his neck until their lips were almost touching

"Oh, yes, but you _do_. Don't worry, it's going to be our… little… secret…"

Her anger was slowly subsiding again, he had just indirectly told her he was just saying those things because he wanted to screw her up, well, not going to happen. Let him be the one who's confused.

"Do you want to know another secret?" She asked.

She hated him for toying with her emotions. She was confused by his actions. She was intrigued by his style. She was attracted to him on the most primitive level.

"Yeah," he said, so she could feel his warm breath on her lips.

"The more you try to scare me, the more you turn me on."

"Who says I'm trying to scare you?" When he licked his lips this time, she could feel his tongue on her lips ever so lightly, she shuddered in delight. She closed her eyes and was preparing for his lips to move to hers when suddenly he pulled back and stood up.

"Alright beautiful, time to go to bed."

She opened her eyes and looked at him, "but… I… You… NO!"

He cocked his eyebrows, "No?"

"No I won't go to bed!" Damn, she felt like a five-year-old.

"You will do as I say." He drew his knife and advanced at her. She drew her gun and stood up.

They stood there facing each other. The Joker started to laugh, then suddenly he leaped at her. Before she even realized it he pushed her on the ground, knife against her throat, pulling her gun out of her hands with ease.

"You know, I really ought to slid your throat for disobeying me." He hissed at her.

"Then do it!" She hissed back.

He sat up, squeezing her thighs with his knees, "you know, you're no fun at all…" he said thoughtfully. She pulled at his tie, bringing his face close to her own once again. She loved how he smelled, even though to most people it would have been a repulsive mix of sweat and gasoline. She also loved that she couldn't read him, and he didn't do what she expected him to do. He was definitely hard to get, but he was also the man she wanted most of all, she had never felt desire like this.

"There are other ways to have fun." She whispered, bringing her lips as close to his as possible. At this point she didn't care if he kissed her or killed her, anything to release her from the burning feeling she had.

He grabbed her hair and smelled it, "Yes there are, beautiful, but you shoot at every man who touches you." He giggled.

"I promise not to shoot at you, if you promise not to hold back." She giggled.

"I never do." He said, and kissed her hard. His kiss was rough and aggressive. His hand was on the back of her head, pushing her hard into his face. Neither of them closed their eyes, and the lust she saw in his eyes made her quiver with desire.

His lower body was pushing into hers, pushing her back against the hard floor.

She unbuttoned his vest and undid his tie, never taking her eyes away from his hypnotizing gaze. The shirt underneath was also buttoned up, she reached for the knife the Joker had dropped on the floor, and just cut the buttons off, she couldn't wait any longer.

His upper body was muscular and covered with scars and burn wounds, she traced over them with one finger, tugging at his shirt with the other hand, he growled and threw it off himself, releasing his lips from hers. Then he grabbed her hands and held them on the floor above her head, he pried the blade from her fingers and cut the front of her dress till just under her bellybutton. She gasped as she felt the knife creating a fine line of blood along the length of her stomach.

He threw the knife away again and shoved the left part of the dress to the side, revealing her breast. He got hold of her nipple with his teeth and then sucked it, hard. She moaned out in pain and pleasure, moving her body up and down against his.

She couldn't stand it anymore, "Take me!" She panted.

He released her hands and took off his pants. Then he tore away the rest of her dress.

His fingers were circling her entrance, making her mad with desire. "Hmmm.." He said, as he looked at his gloves. He removed them with his teeth and suddenly put his fingers deep inside her, she moaned as she finally got what she had so long burned for. His fingers were exploring her harshly, moving every way. She tightened around them, her body moving uncontrollably.

He took his fingers out and positioned himself over her. His erection was at her entrance, teasing her, she didn't think she could take it a second longer. He saw the desire in her eyes and smiled, then he thrust deeply into her. She let out a yell of pleasure and surprise. She blindly grabbed at his back and scratched him with her fingernails. He threw back his head in delight.

She closed her eyes and let the pleasure consume her.

"Look at me." She heard him growl above her. She did. His eyes were more intense then she'd ever seen them. He kissed her roughly again, thrusting harder and deeper into her. His hand was in her hair, his long, jagged fingernails buried deeply into her skin. His other hand was squeezing her nipple.

She felt her orgasm coming, digging her fingernails even deeper into his skin. Her body erupted with sweet pleasure. She squeezed around him as hard as she could, making him come too.

He rolled off her, both of them were panting heavily and trying to catch their breath.

She turned her face to look at him, he did the same.

"_Now_ you're really a slut." He grinned.

"So are you." She stuck out her tongue and he quickly caught it between his teeth and bit into it. "Watch your tongue." He giggled. She grinned at him, a droplet of blood coming out the side of her mouth.

She stood up, feeling his fluids going down the inside of her thighs, and went to the closet. It was empty, of course it was, she giggled. When she turned around the Joker was already dressed again. She looked at what was left of her dress. She slipped into it like you would slip into a vest.

"J, lend me a knife." She said, abbreviating his name without even thinking about it.

"J?" he said, raising his eyebrows.

"Get used to it. Now how about that knife?"

He threw one just an inch away from her head, it stuck into the wall behind her. She stuck the knife into the dress, using it like a pin to hold her dress together.

Then she left the room without looking back.


	12. road trip

**Chapter 12: Road trip**

She walked along the corridors to her room. When she walked up the stairs to the second floor, Max was standing there. He looked at her. She could only imagine what he saw; ripped open dress, make-up smears on her face. She realized just now she had forgotten to take her gun with her, ah well, she would get it back in the morning.

"So, he finally got his way with you did he?" He asked.

"No, I finally got my way with him, if you really want to know." She spat back, she was in no mood to discuss this with him, she didn't want him to ruin what she saw as an incredible evening.

"Do you really think he didn't plan on it?" Max asked unbelievingly, "come on Laura, you don't believe that he invited you to his room just to talk? It's all part of the plan, you're just his pawn."

"Fuck you Max, you are an incredibly judgmental bastard and you have no idea how the real world works. You think you can just buy anything or anyone. Well, some people are not for sale, either by money or anything else!" She screamed at him, he'd done it, he had fucked up a perfectly good evening, and all the frustration she had over the last few days just burst out.

He looked at her for a few seconds. He actually looked like he felt sorry for her, well, he shouldn't. "Don't think you know anything about what the Joker's planning." He said softly.

"I don't care what he's planning! I do as I want, when I want it! Now get the fuck out off my way!"

She tried to walk past him. He grabbed her shoulders and her dress came undone, knife clattering on the ground. His eyes widened as he saw the shallow cut that ran from between her breasts to her bellybutton.

"Now look what you did!" She scolded him, "do you have to ruin everything for me?"

She pulled herself free and walked away, not bothering to keep her dress together so it was spread out behind her like a strange cape.

"I'm just trying to help." Max yelled after her.

"Help yourself asshole!" She yelled back, slamming the door shut.

~*~

She awoke the next morning in pain. She looked down on her body. She still had the torn open dress on. The cut on her belly had started bleeding somewhere during the night and there were smears of blood over her body, mattress and sheets. Also, she had a bruise around her nipple.

As she stood up she noticed the insides of her thighs were also hurting. But, she reflected, it had been worth it.

After hitting the showers and putting on a new dress, she felt better. But she didn't know exactly what to do.

She thought about it for a while, standing in front of the mirror doing her make-up. It was Monday today, and the only appointment she had was ruining Bruce Wayne's fundraiser on Thursday. So she guessed she could skip town for a few days to execute the plan that had been forming in her head. But she did need to do some research first. She had seen a computer on her exploration of the museum and headed that way.

She hadn't been on the internet for years, but she guessed it was like riding a bike. After three hour she had all the information she needed. She knew where to get it, how she was going to get it, and figured out a way of transporting it without looking too suspicious.

~*~

An hour later she was almost ready to go. She had picked the biggest handbag she'd bought and filled it with some magnum rounds, make-up and her cell-phone with its charger. Then she went to the Joker's room to get back her gun.

She knocked on the door but there was no answer, so she opened it.

He wasn't there, the candles were gone too. The room looked even stranger in daylight, with the bright green floor and purple walls. The gun was still on the floor, she picked it up and walked over and sat on the bed, wanting to write him a note, when she realized she hadn't brought any paper with her. Ah well, no problem.

She took out her lipstick and went to the closet. As long as he didn't use it, it could serve as a message board.

_**J,**_

_**I'm away for a few days, but don't worry, I'll be back, wouldn't want to miss out on the fun.**_

_**Call me if you need me to come back.**_

_**L **_

That should do, she didn't want to spoil the surprise. She would show him exactly how special she was!

She was about to go out the door when she remembered she still needed one more thing: money. She went to the staffroom, no one was there. She looked around and sure enough there was a wallet on one of the couches 'my lucky day' she thought, as she opened it and saw Bull's ugly face staring back at her from the driver's license picture. Good, no one would be mad at her for taking _his_ money. She got everything out, which amounted to 72 dollars and 90 cents. Now, she was truly ready to go.

~*~

She walked for 2 hours, until she reached the highway leading out of the city. There she stuck up a thumb to hitchhike. Sure enough, a few minutes later a fifty-year-old man with a car that screamed MIDLIFE CRISIS stopped to let her in.

"Where are you going, young lady?' He asked, trying to be charming and failing miserably. She named a town about 100 miles from her real destination.

"Well, I can take you at least halfway if you'd like." He said.

"Sure," Laura answered and hopped in.

Of course the guy wanted to know all about her destination and life story and all that crap, so she made up another alias and a story about visiting her sick mother and having no money, how very touchy… and corny. At the nearest rest stop she asked him to pull over, which he did, stupidly enough. It was noon and the place was deserted, and thus perfect. She asked him to drive as close to the restrooms as he could, which were on the far end of the parking lot. There she shot him through the head before he even knew what was happening.

She definitely needed to change her tactics. The blood was everywhere once more. She cleaned the windows with the guys tie and with a lot of effort threw him on the backseats and found a blanket in the trunk of the car to cover him with.

She had cleverly decided to wear the black dress today, so the bloodstains wouldn't be as noticeable. She cleaned her face looking at the rearview mirror and went on her way.

She had never driven an automatic car before, the last time she drove a car had been in Holland and they all drove stick-shift there, but it was easy.

She turned on the radio and searched around a bit until she found a rock channel. She almost screamed when she heard 'in the end' by Linkin Park, something from 'her time', she laughed at this thought, it made her feel like a grandma.

She spend about four hours this way, turning the radio all the way up and singing along with any song she knew, humming along with the songs she didn't, smoking like a train.

4 p.m. she realized she hadn't eaten anything yet. She decided to have breakfast, lunch and dinner in one at some sleazy roadside diner. She ordered 2 cheeseburgers and an extra large order of fries with a big coke, she was truly starving. The fat waitress looked at her in envy when she ordered. She thought of recommending her own diet to the waitress: one helping of losing everything with a side of depression, it had made her lose 20 pounds.

After paying she asked the waitress if there was a cheap motel somewhere around. The waitress pointed her to a roadside motel a few miles onward.

One night cost her 50 dollars, this was bad. She hadn't counted on staying in a motel, but she couldn't walk around with blood splatters on her dress, even though they weren't really visible. She washed herself and the dress in the small shower and then went to bed, it was only 6.30 but she was exhausted from driving all day.

~*~

She arrived at her destination late the next evening. She was now driving a heavy-duty truck. She could only imagine how weird she would look with her expensive dress and high heeled shoes, driving an enormous truck. She had taken another car before she took the truck, because the first one ran out of gas. Both cars were now hidden out of sight. She had taken great care about hiding the cars. Driving off into the woods at deserted rest stops and taking the money the drivers had on them. She now reckoned she had enough money to pay for the gas for the truck.

Her dress was covered in blood now and she smelled, she hadn't thought about bringing deodorant.

She looked out the window. She had circled the premises and was now parked between trees with the headlights out, keeping the back of the truck free to load the thing in after she got it.

She had observed for an hour. There was a wire gate, one guard and camera security. The cameras were all pointed towards the premises, none facing the surroundings. She thought this could be done.

She decided to sleep for a few hours, she was beat. She set the alarm on her cell-phone at 11pm, then she would observe for another hour.

~*~

She had it!! She couldn't believe it had actually worked!

She had observed the guard closely, he walked around for five minutes every half an hour, walking from the building to the gate and back.

She had gotten out of the truck just before he would make another round. She had slowly walked over to opposite the gate, staying in the shadow of the trees. She waited.

When the guard came again she could just faint with excitement, her heart rate was far too high and she was sweating like crazy, even though it was freezing outside.

He came, this was the time. He came closer, she was shaking now. He came at the gate, she steadied herself and shot him.

Now she had to hurry, she didn't know if anyone was watching the video from the cameras. She hurried over to the gate and shot the lock. She opened the gate all the way and ran to the storage building. She shot the lock and let herself inside. That was when the alarm went off. SHIT, off course, the building had motion sensors. She saw what she wanted right away and ran to it. She clambered inside, losing one shoe in the process and was happy to see that it was just as described on internet.

Within fifteen minutes it was done, it was in the truck. The alarm was blaring loudly. She drove away from there at top speed.

~*~

Thursday around one in the afternoon Laura finally came home again. Weird that she would already think of it as home, but she did, it was the closest thing to home she had known in years.

She was a mess, stinking of blood, sweat and cigarettes. Her hair was tangled, there were huge circles under her eyes, and she was barefoot. She desperately needed a shower.

As she stumbled out the cabin she saw four people coming out the house. The Joker was in front, followed by Max, Luke and Twitchy. She just realized that she hadn't seen the guy with no name in days, her tired mind wondered briefly if he might dead.

Her legs were trembling. The last time she'd eaten or drank anything was on Tuesday afternoon . She hadn't slept a lot since Tuesday night either, just a few hours on the seat of the truck, but it had been a restless sleep, full of doubt and fear. Doubt about killing those people who hadn't done her any harm. The kills had been necessary to reach her goal, but she guessed maybe she wasn't as fine with it as she thought she was. Fear about being found out, being caught by the cops, being thrown in some jail to rot the rest of her miserable life. She felt haunted. She thought no one had seen the truck at the site, but how could she be sure?

Her vision doubled for a second, then the Joker roughly grabbed her chin.

"Ah," he said, his breath making her noxious, "our little _runaway_."

"I got you… a present." She managed.

He let go of her chin. She hadn't counted on it, and fell to the floor. She lay there for a moment before he roughly picked her up again.

"You look… _sexy_," he said, looking her up and down, her tired mind couldn't quite comprehend it. He was running his hand through her dirty hair, "is _that _my present?" He asked grinning.

"No," she muttered, "present's… in… the truck."

"Is it now, I wanna see it."

"No, it's not.. finished."

"Hmm.. I want it anyway."

He walked over to the truck and opened the back. When he saw what was inside he burst out laughing. "_You_ got _me_, a _tank?_"

She just nodded. Her mind had shut down completely, all she could think about was sleeping.

He walked over to her and threw her over his shoulder.

"Okay, now for some _fun_."

"No," She muttered, "Sleep."

"I didn't _say_ you had a choice." He replied, carrying her to his room.


	13. you almost make me forget

**Alright, new chapter, new chances right? this one has some sex in it again, i pretty much suck at writing those scenes, because ive never written sexscenes before, so if you don't like them, just skip the first paragraph;) Hope you enjoy reading this one as much as i enjoyed writing it:)**

**Chapter 13: You almost make me forget**

The Joker threw her on the bed, taking off his coat and jumping on top of her. Her handbag fell to the floor.

His hands were all over her. She tried to push him off, but couldn't find the strength. "I don't want to." She said weakly.

"Did you turn deaf while you were away," he growled at her, "you don't have a choice."

"But you said… you don't… rape?" She stammered.

The Joker smiled, baring his yellow teeth at her, "Don't you ever learn little Laura? Guys will say _anything_ to get a girl into bed." He laughed at his own joke, "Beside, you _do _want it."

"I don't."

"Either way." He said, undoing his pants, "You're mine now."

She tried to reach for her gun, not to shoot him, just club him on the head or something, but he was on to her. He pulled up her dress and got the gun out of its holster, slowly bringing it to her head.

The gun was against her temple. She looked at him coldly. Everybody knows the feeling when they are too tired to care about anything but sleep, all their mind can focus on is going to sleep, it doesn't matter if they will never wake up. She had no time for his bullshit, she had no time to think about death. All she wanted was the comfort of sleep.

It seemed to Laura like they stayed this way forever. His dark eyes looking deeply into her bright blue ones. She was not afraid. She knew he couldn't hurt her more than she had already been hurt, he couldn't say anything that could make her feel worse than her memories did. Even though she never thought of the events, she could still feel the pain they had caused, especially when she was tired like this and she felt like she could either cry or go to sleep.

His eyes seemed to know all of this, they seemed to be searching her soul, she couldn't convince herself otherwise. And she wanted him to know that nothing could hurt her anymore, nothing could make her feel any worse than she secretly felt every single day. Even when she had felt numb and emotionless, she was just numbed by the pain, so she had blocked everything out. Now that her other emotions were coming back; joy, fear, lust, it seemed that every time one of those emotions went away, hurt would take its place, coming on stronger and stronger every time.

But she couldn't go back to that place, she wouldn't let her mind revisit these events long since past. Suddenly, she did want him to take her, take her hard and let every other feeling disappear, let her feel only that one strong feeling: lust.

It seemed like he noticed the change in her eyes, he started to grin. "Ah, a change of heart," He tossed the gun away and brought his face close to hers, "I like that."

She smiled at him, "glad you like it, now stop talking and take me."

"Hmmm…" he said, "How bad do you want it?" His finger was tracing the inside of her thigh, his touch so gentle she could have never imagined it. It awoke all her senses, she tried to stifle her moans, she didn't want him to know how she needed it, how she needed the sweet feeling of lust to block all those horrible emotions.

"Stop playing games." She whispered in his ear, biting hard into his earlobe. He chuckled, "I think I've spoiled you, you've grown used to getting _everything you want_. Well, I don't think I'll uhm… give it to you."

She wanted to beg him to take her, she didn't want to show him she needed it so badly. She was torn.

"Either fuck me or let me sleep." She hissed.

His fingers had moved up, stimulating her clit. She moaned loudly, she didn't care if he knew how bad she wanted it anymore, she only wanted to feel him inside of her, she only wanted to get some escape from reality.

"You didn't answer my question," he whispered, his voice was so sensual, had she noticed before? She guessed she had, unconsciously, "how bad do you want it?"

She couldn't lie, she didn't know how he was going to react if she said she didn't want it, he might walk away.

"I want it so bad." She moaned. "So, so bad."

"Now that's more like it." He said, as he bent down to bite into the hollow of her neck. She clutched at the back of his shirt, hearing the fabric rip as she tore at it. His hand was still between her legs, going fast then slow, teasing her, making her moan. She grabbed at his erection hard and started pleasing him. She could hear his breathing deepen and feel his teeth really gripping on the sensitive skin of her neck.

She couldn't take it any longer, she needed to have him, now.

"Fuck me before I come." She told him, and for once he did what she asked.

She cried out when he came deep inside her. His right hand was gripping her hip, the other one was squeezing her breast. She had both of her hands in his greasy hair, for some reason it felt so good. She looked into his eyes, she just couldn't get enough of their intensity. She held on tighter to his hair, she felt him also squeezing her harder, digging his fingernails into her skin. She moved her hips in sync with his movements until she couldn't take it anymore and her orgasm came, taking all the care away, filling her with pleasure, and pleasure only. All the world around her disappeared, she could vaguely feel the Joker coming as well and getting off her, then she drifted off to the dreamless sleep she had so yearned for.

~*~

She was awakened by ringing, such an irritating noise. Where did it come from? She slowly opened her eyes. She was in the Joker's bed, but he was nowhere to be seen. The ringing was coming from her handbag on the ground. She reached for it and got her cell-phone out. Shit, Bruce Wayne, what the hell was she going to say to him? Did she have to do everything herself?

"Hi Bruce!" She said, trying to sound as awake as possible.

"Hey Iris, where you sleeping?" Well, that didn't work.

"Yeah, had a rough night."

"Went to check out the town?"

"Yeah, me and Max…" Asshole, "went to some clubs last night, I've just fallen asleep."

"Well, if you're not up to the fundraiser tonight, just tell me." He said, he even sounded concerned, man, he was a bit of a douchebag, wasn't he?

"No, no, I'm fine." She said, "I wouldn't want to miss out on the fun." At least that was true.

"Alright, what hotel are you staying?"

"Ehm, I'm at Max's right now, how about I'll meet you at the restaurant?"

He was fine with this and told her the name and street of the restaurant. They said goodbye and Laura looked on her watch, it was already 4 p.m., probably a fifteen minute drive to downtown, so she had just an hour and three quarters to wake up fully, shower, dress, put loads of make-up on to hide the dark circles under her eyes and find Max and convince him to drive her to the restaurant. Also, she still had no idea what she had to do.

After a quick shower she went to work with brushing her hair. She had such fine hair that even not brushing it for a day would leave it all tangled, and it was very difficult to get it back to normal again, especially now that it was wet. She was almost there when Max came in.

"I've been looking for you, did Bruce Wayne call you yet?" He asked

"Yeah he did, I told him I stayed at your place, so you would drive me. Is that okay?" She asked, she felt very uncomfortable around him after the fight they had last time, but she saw he felt the same, so that made it slightly better.

"Yeah that's fine, I'll tell you what to do in the car alright, it's not very difficult."

Laura felt sorry. He just didn't understand her, but was that a reason for her to yell at him? Then again, he had acted so judgmental.

She smiled at him, she hoped the smile said 'everything's okay, we're cool' He smiled back, a genuine warm smile and left the room again.

She did everything as fast as she could, and she was surprised to see it was only 5.30 when she was done. She was truly starving and decided to have some cereal before she went. She was sure Bruce Wayne was only used to eating out with starving anorexia models, so he wouldn't notice if she didn't eat a lot.

She walked towards the front doors. Her gun was safely in its holster again, she had on a clean dress, her make-up was done properly and her hair was silky soft once more, she felt a whole lot better.

~*~

"Alright here's the plan." Max said, as they were driving away, "You go out, have a lovely evening with Gotham's biggest playboy and you go to the fundraiser together. Bruce Wayne will give one of his speeches after you arrive. When he's finished, text me. I will call you, but don't answer, instead, you take these," he gave her a couple of handcuffs, "and you make sure Bruce Wayne doesn't go anywhere. After that, the Joker takes over so just go with it."

She nodded, simple enough.

"And how long will it take between the time I text you until the time you get there?" She asked.

"Only a few minutes, so be sure to lure him somewhere you can tie him to right after you text me, okay?"

"Okay."

She looked out the window, looking at the dull gray streets of Gotham going past her. She wondered where her life was going, she wondered if she even wanted it to go anywhere.

"Laura," Max said, she turned her head to look at him, he looked concerned, "I can see you're not happy, now don't get mad, but my offer still stands."

She shook her head, she wanted to cry, but tried to smile instead, "I could go somewhere else, but it wouldn't matter, because certain things will never stop hunting you, no matter where you are."

From the expression on his face she could tell he knew exactly what she meant.

"What happened to you?" He asked. He was so sweet, she had yelled at him for trying to help her, but he still couldn't resist.

"I don't want to talk about it Max, maybe someday, but not now."

"Sure, I understand." He said, and she thought he really did.

~*~

She gave Max a hug when she got out the car and went inside the restaurant. She felt completely out of place here, feeling like she didn't belong with all these rich people with their so called 'sophistication'. She had always made fun of those people who were trying so hard to be better than everyone else, showing off their cash and fancy designer clothes, and now she had to pretend to be one of them.

"Good evening madam." A waiter said to her.

"Good evening," Laura replied, "Is mr. Wayne here yet?" She didn't really know if this was the way you were supposed to do this, but whatever.

"Yes madam, follow me please."

The waiter led her to the table where Bruce Wayne was already waiting. He looked up from his newspaper. Of course, a man of the world could not be found alone without something to read.

She sat down at the table and prepared for a long night.


	14. Showtime

**Don't hate me if this sucks...**

**Chapter 14: Showtime**

"So what do you do when you're not traveling?" Bruce asked, they were about 15 minutes into the date. Laura was actually quite enjoying herself. It had been so long since she'd been on a date.

"Well, I've been through my second year of medicine studies, but now I'm taking a year off." She said, thinking it wise to stay as close to the truth as possible. "So now I'm just traveling a bit, visiting my father's hotels, visiting friends I didn't have time to visit before, making new friends…" She said, smiling at him.

He smiled back, she could tell he liked her, she had no idea why. 'What does a man like him see in someone like me?' she asked herself. She had never seen herself as beautiful, or even pretty, and she knew he was the kind of man who only dated beautiful women.

"So you don't want be in the same business as your father?" He asked.

"Nah, it's just not me. I know I want to be a doctor someday. I mean, I love my dad, but I want to do something that makes the world better, and not only myself, you know." She said, shrugging. Even though it wasn't true now, it had been 'before'.

Bruce looked at her in amusement, she couldn't quite read his mind. "And your parents don't mind?" He asked.

"Nah, they're very supportive of me. I've always been someone who can only act like myself, I don't really like people who pretend to be something else."

Bruce only nodded, she thought she might have insulted him, but wasn't quite sure why. Probably best to change the subject.

So they talked about safe stuff, politics, hobbies, things like that. But throughout it all, Laura had the feeling that Bruce was hiding something. She normally was quite good at reading people, seeing what they were like. Bruce Wayne though, he seemed all arrogant and confident, but something in his eyes didn't quite match, his eyes seemed kind of sad.

"Do you mind if I go out and smoke a cigarette?" She asked after some time, you know you have to quit when you have to leave a room because you need a cigarette.

"You don't have to go out," Bruce said, signaling at a waiter, "get the lady an ashtray please."

The waiter swiftly returned with an ashtray, leaving Laura to smoke her cigarette happily, enjoying the angry stares from the other diners.

~*~

She had drunk one too many glasses of wine once again. She giggled as they got out of the limousine. Bruce steadied her as she stumbled and she giggled again, "now I'm acting more like the women you usually date, don't I?"

"What do you mean?" He said, raising his eyebrows.

"I mean, the brainless, gorgeous types."

"Well, I decided tonight that I like the smart gorgeous types better." He answered, looking at her earnestly.

"I guess you just have to settle for the ugly smart girl tonight." She said, suddenly feeling depressed.

He lifted her chin, "You are anything but ugly. But I won't tell you again, you might get conceited." He smiled at her, it was nice to see him smile, even though his eyes didn't smile when he did.

"You know Bruce, I think there's more to you than you show. You're not the arrogant playboy you pretend to be are you?" She said, talking before thinking.

He just laughed, didn't even answer.

"I'm sorry I drank too much, I'm just nervous." She confessed.

"Why would you be nervous?" He asked

"I just don't like all those people looking at me, and to think there are so many guns in the room, I don't know…"

He smiled at her, "Did you think I would allow guns in my house?"

She smiled back, "Guess not. Alright, I'm ready, let's go inside."

They walked into the apartment at ten p.m.. Laura had composed herself again, smiling at all the people who were all looking at her and Bruce.

Bruce immediately started his speech.

Laura walked to a wall, standing against it and looking at Bruce. An older man who was carrying drinks approached her. "You must be miss van Dijk." He said. Laura nodded. "Excuse me for saying this miss, but you seem a little out of place." She smiled at him, "I am." "Well don't worry about a thing, Mr. Wayne always takes excellent care of his guests."

"Thank you." She said, taking one of the drinks from his plate.

She didn't listen to Bruce's speech, she just found it more interesting to see his body language, he stood there so confident, totally at ease with standing in the spotlights, she wished she could be as confident as he was. She also looked around, at the people, at the building itself.

Suddenly, she saw one of the cops she'd talked to after she blew up her office building. He was looking at her with a puzzled expression on his face, she knew what that meant, he was trying to figure out where he knew her from.

This was going all wrong, as soon as he'd recognized her and remembered she was supposed to be dead, she would be in all kinds of trouble, not to mention that the Joker's plan would be ruined. She looked at Bruce. 'Please let him finish soon.' She thought.

She looked at the cop again, but he wasn't there anymore. She was scared.

Bruce finished, and walked straight towards her. Finally. This might still work out alright after all.

"Could you come with me for a second Bruce?" She asked, leading him away towards the stairs, it had some rails she could tie him to easily. But first, a message. She texted Max nice and simple 'speech done' was all it said, then she turned her attention back to Bruce.

At that moment she heard someone yell her name, not Iris, but her real name. It must be the cop. Luckily, Bruce didn't know her real name, so he didn't look up. This gave her time to grab his hand and look deep into his eyes. Her other hand deftly went into her handbag and pulled out the handcuffs. Moving both their hands to the railing she quickly attached Bruce's hand to it. Job done, that had been too close.

She looked up in the direction the shout had come from. She was staring right in the face of the cop, his head just inches away from hers.

She smiled at him sweetly, "Yes?".

"What are you doing? Release him at once!" The cop shouted in her face. The party had gone quiet and everyone was looking at them.

"Not yet." She said and giggled a bit. At that moment she heard the 'ding' of the elevator, very loud in the now almost silent penthouse.

The Joker happily stepped out of the elevator with about five of his thugs. He took off his mask and shot his gun in the air. The room went even more quiet than it had before.

"Honey, I'm home!" The Joker shouted.

She skipped over to him, people were actually going out of the way to let her pass.

"Darling!" She said, feeling the drama, "I thought you would never come, this party was so boring without you."

"Well," He said, "How about we spice things up."

He stepped forward, eyeing the room. He slowly started to pace back and forth, with every forward step he took, the crowd seemed to take two steps back.

"Now," he said, "I know how you people _love_ you little rules-ah. So I've made some for you. First, you make a sound, you die, ehm, ok? Second, you move, you die. Simple hmm?"

Laura watched in fascination. She could see now, this was what he was made for. She could see the fear in the eyes of everyone in the room. She could see every small movement he made in perfect clarity. It was almost like he fed on the attention. All eyes were on him and he was visibly loving it. They were his audience, whether they liked it or not.

While he was holding his little talk, more thugs had come up in the elevator. They spread across the room, placing what seemed like gas tanks.

He slowly walked towards Bruce, toying with his faithful knife once again. "Now, we've got a _celebrity_ here."

Bruce didn't move, didn't so much as flinch, when the Joker brought the knife to his cheek. Then, suddenly, he grabbed the Joker's arm with his free hand and turned it behind his back. The Joker laughed like a maniac at this, then his other arm shot out and hit Bruce straight in the balls. There was a loud gasp from the crowd. Two thugs came and one of them shot something into Bruce's arm, he immediately went limp. Laura was intrigued by this, she had always been fascinated by drugs and medicine.

"I think…" The Joker said, "All of you either moved or made a sound there, so…" He untied Bruce and dragged him back to the elevator, taking a detonator out of his coat. He pushed the button. The gas tank unleashed their certainly toxic compound. Laura quickly followed him into the elevator, two masked henchmen followed. He put on his mask as the elevator went down. She wasn't surprised that he had left most of his henchmen behind to die with the rest of them.

~*~

In the van they all took off their masks. Laura saw that Larry and the Look were the masked guys. Max was driving the car. The Joker was humming to himself, some indistinct tune she didn't recognize. She was exhausted again, now that the adrenaline had left her body she was so tired. She put her head against the side of the van and closed her eyes.

Some time later she felt the van stopping and opened her eyes. She staggered out. Larry and the Look were dragging Bruce to the building.

"What are we going to do with him?" She asked the Joker, cocking her head at Bruce, who was starting to wake up, judging from his grunts.

"Well, we're gonna have to wait a week, and then…"

"Why wait a week?"

"Laura, you really don't know? Haven't you seen it in the streets? In the windows? It's-ah, the most wonderful time of the year." He said, his hands making a dramatic gesture.

Her stomach clenched, she felt like she couldn't breathe anymore. Sure she had seen the decorations, but they always started so early. It couldn't be, she had been able to ignore it for almost five years, and now, this madman actually wanted to celebrate it by killing people. It was too much. She ran to her room.


	15. Painful remembrance

**Chapter 15: Painful remembrance**

She sat on the mattress, her hands on her face. She didn't want to relive it, she didn't! 'Don't do this to yourself' she thought, 'don't, please don't!'. But she couldn't help it. Normally she could push those thought back to the place they came from. But not now, now she had to remember it all…

"_Hey Tim, did you see South Park last night?" _

_She was at work, serving the usual costumers their usual pizza. She and her co-worker Tim were standing in the kitchen, waiting for the next order. It was very busy and conversation was always hastened._

"_No, what was it about?" _

_She giggled, "It was the one about those cows that commit suicide, you know, where Cartman thinks he's a hooker."_

_Tim laughed, "I love that one, 'You give me eight dollar, soldier boy!' It's a classic!" _

"_They all are, aren't they, it's like, the best show ever." _

_The order came and she went to serve the costumers. She smiled slightly as she walked over to the table. Christmas was in two days, and she loved it._

_When she'd put the pizza's on the table she saw a group of about eight people entering. She walked towards them. A man who looked just over thirty started to talk to her. He was quite a handsome man, although a bit too slick and arrogant for her taste, definitely Italian. "We would like a table for eight please." He said. Yes Italian alright, the accent told the whole story. _

"_Of course sir, do you have a reservation?" She asked_

"_No, but we would really like a table" He replied, shoving a 50 euro bill into her hands. She stared at it and then shook her head._

"_Sir, I'm sorry, but it is very busy tonight and we do not have any tables at the moment, if you'd like to you could wait at the bar." She tried to give him the money back but he crossed his arms._

"_I don't think you understand girly, I need a table, right now. Now, if I give you, let's say, another hundred, can I be sure you'll give us a nice table, and something extra…" He said, staring down her shirt and stroking his hand along her face. She pushed him away. "I will not give you anything extra, not ever. Now please go away and take your filthy money with you." She threw the money on the floor and started walking away, thinking this best because she was going to lose her temper and that was never good. He grabbed her wrist and yanked her back, then whispered in her ear, "I'll get you for this, you bitch. You ruined my night and embarrassed me in front of my friends, and I am not a man who forgives easily." _

_Laura was angry now, she knew all the facts about how the costumer was supposed to be king and never to shout or curse while you are working, but the guy had her blood boiling and she could feel a headache coming up._

"_I don't care if you forgive me, you asshole." She screamed, "If you are the kind of man who has to impress his friends with money then you are a nobody in my eyes, so fuck off and take your fucking bought friends with you!" She actually spit him in his face. Later that evening, in her bed, she would giggle about doing a thing like that._

_It seemed like he was about to reach into his coat pocket, then he noticed his surroundings. He walked away, and his posse followed. He turned around at the door and looked at her "I will get you for this."_

_She glared at him and actually felt herself smile. Men were always so full of shit._

_It seemed the people around her were more shocked by the event then she was herself. She was happy that her boss wasn't mad at her for screaming at someone. Her boss actually told her: "good job.". After telling everyone she was really okay she went back to work. She worked for another four hours before she could finally go home. She noticed with a smile that her tips were a few euro's higher than usual too. Tim drove her to her parent's house, saying it would be safer, seemed like everyone around her was scared except for her. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and went inside. Boys were always so protective, it annoyed her sometimes, but it was also kind of cute._

_~*~_

_Christmas eve. She was together with her family. She had been going back and forth from Amsterdam for two years, and it was always nice to be with her family and boyfriend for more than a weekend, although it was also always great to be back in Amsterdam._

"_You know, this one guy in my class is really angry at his parents, because they only give his sisters presents at Christmas and not him." Laura said, when the conversation turned to presents. "Why?" Her mother asked._

_She was sitting at the table with her mother, father, brother and boyfriend. She was holding her boyfriend's hand under the table. They had been together for a little more than 4 years now, and it was still hard to only see him on weekends now that she was studying in Amsterdam. _

"_Well, he's 19 now, and since he's turned 18 he doesn't get presents for any holiday, and his sisters are 16 so they still have 2 more years of presents ahead of them."_

"_That's ridiculous," her father said, "Christmas wasn't just meant for kids."_

_She shrugged, "I donno. But it sure is funny to hear him rave about it."_

_She was having a great time. It seemed she and her family got along so much better ever since she'd moved out of the house, they didn't have to suffer the daily frustrations together. Tonight was a night for the five of them, a lot of families in Holland didn't even celebrate Christmas eve, only the first and second day of Christmas. The first was reserved for her family, including aunts, uncles, grandparents and all that. The second day would be solely spent at her in-laws. She was looking forward to both days, although she could almost see her body grow with each bite she took. She always gained weight in winter, it was like a yearly ritual, and it was also like a yearly ritual to promise herself she would do better, after new year's eve of course, when she would also be eating like crazy. _

_They were sitting around the fondue. It had been the fourth time her mum lost one of her pieces of meat in the burning oil. Laura giggled as her dad once again explored the oil with a fork to search for the lost piece. _

"_So what are you doing for new year's eve?" Laura asked her parents, she had been talking about going to Paris with her boyfriend every day, but hadn't even asked her parents what they were going to do. This was because she thought she already knew the answer._

"_I think we'll just stay here with grandma," Her mother said, giving her just the answer she expected, "we are jealous of you though, Paris is so romantic, I can only imagine what it would be like on New Year's." _

_Laura smiled, "Yeah it was great last time we went, especially Disneyland," She giggled. _

"_Yeah, and we found your dream car there." Her boyfriend said._

_Laura smiled again, it was a night for smiles. She thought about the pink classic car that stood as decoration at Disneyland which had stolen her heart, "did you see pictures of the car?" She asked her parents, who shook their heads. "Shall I show you real quick?" She asked, she was finished anyway, while everyone else was still eating._

_Her parents said yes and she ran up the two flights of stairs to get some of the pictures. When she entered her room (or what had once been her room and was now really just a room with a bed and places where you could see the outlines of posters that had once hung on the walls) she noticed it was very cold. She just saw the curtains to the balcony were flapping like crazy, then she felt a hand over her mouth, and another one around her waist. Someone had been hiding behind the door to her room. She tried to scream and kick, but to no effect. She could hear another door opening, the door to her brother's bedroom opposite the hall. She was with her back to the hall and could not see any of the people who had broken in to her parent's house. Her legs were still kicking against the legs of the person holding her, when she felt a knife against her throat. "Quiet" She heard the guy whisper in her ear, she obliged. The knife holder had now come into view. He was one of the people who had been with the Italian guy at her restaurant. Just seeing his face and realizing fully what was happening made her squirm again. He punched her in her stomach. She felt like she would throw up in the hand of the guy who was holding her, but she didn't. Somewhere far below she heard the buzz of the doorbell. _

'_Please, don't open the door.' Laura thought, but of course they would, there was no reason not to. _

"_Now, my friend here," The guy with the knife said, gesturing with his head to the guy behind her, "is going to get his hand off your mouth. Now, if you make one little sound, you will be breathing through a tube in your throat for the rest of your life… If you're lucky! Besides, your family has other things to worry about at this point than your screams."_

_With this, he gave the knife to the man behind her, who continued the pressure on her throat. Then her feet were tied together, as were her hands. Her mouth was soon covered with tape. She stood still, her mind racing. Millions of questions were going through her head. 'What are they going to do?' 'Why don't they want me to make a sound, if my family is probably already tied up like me?' 'Why couldn't I've just kept my idiot mouth shut to begin with?' _

_When she was tied up they picked her up, one man behind her, one in front, both holding on to her under her armpits. They slowly and silently carried her down the stairs this way, until they stood in the small hallway to the living room. _

"_Now, you'll see people you 'buy' are really much more useful than people who supposedly 'love' you." One of her captors whispered in her ear, drawing her hair back with his hands. _

"_Now I'll ask you one last time, where is she?" She heard a familiar voice ask, the voice of the arrogant Italian. _

"_We don't know, she's not here." She heard her father reply. It brought tears to her eyes, they were protecting her, even though they were probably at gunpoint. "Fine, if you don't tell me, you speaking has no use to me". _

_She screamed through her taped mouth, a muffled sound came out, but apparently it had been hard enough, because the Italian spoke again, "Ah, I think I hear the little bitch now." Apparently this was the cue for his two henchmen to bring her in, because one of them carried her through the door. _

_By now tears were streaming down her face, and when she saw the people she loved tied to each other and the feet of the table, she screamed again. They looked at her in dismay, seeing that she had been found after all. Their mouths were taped as well, leaving them to communicate to each other in muffled screams. Although her eyes were focused on her family and boyfriend, she vaguely noticed the Italian and two more of his men were also in the room. The Italian turned around and looked at her, a smile on his face. _

"_Now, our special guest. Just in time for the bonfire." _

'_What bonfire?' was the question she wanted to ask, but just after it had formed in her head she understood with dawning horror. _

_Her suspicions were conformed when one of the men got a gas can from the corner and started dousing her loved ones in it. _

_Laura couldn't stand it, she screamed, she tried to move, kick, anything, but all her actions were of no use. She was restrained by both the ropes and the man behind her._

_She looked into the eyes of her mother, her brother, her father, her boyfriend. She couldn't stand the fear she saw there. She wanted to plead with this mad man, she wanted to beg him to kill her instead, she wanted to say to them how much she loved each one of them, but just a small piece of tape prohibited her from expressing any of these thoughts._

"_Now, as you see, friends bought with money and fear last a lot longer than people who like or love you, don't they? And your loved ones are not lasting any longer." Her tormenter said, flicking on a match. _

_Laura couldn't do anything but look into the eyes of each of them and try to communicate her love for them that way, when he threw the match in their direction._

_She screamed and struggled and cried harder than ever as she saw the people she loved burning before her eyes. She tried to close her eyes, but one of the men kept them open. It was horror behind description, her mind was full of screams, all rational thoughts had ceased._

"Laura, Laura. Laura!" She heard someone say, from what seemed like a million miles away. She looked up from the floor which had been the screen for her memories. She saw Max standing just a few feet away from her. She didn't try to wipe away her tears. Her face and eyes were red from crying, but that didn't matter anymore.

"Yes?" It came out weakly and cracked, nothing like the cheerful voice she now remembered from before that day.

"I - I'm sorry. The Joker, he wants to see you." Max said.

Laura shook her head, "tell him I'm busy."

"I will, but I don't think he would hear it."

She shrugged, what did it matter.

How long had it been like she really thought about these things? They had been in the back of her mind every day, but it was so long ago that she had truly relived it. And she wasn't done yet, now that she was thinking about it, she wanted to think about it all. She suddenly felt ashamed, she should have thought about this every single day!

Even before Max left the room she was back in her head, remembering herself being dragged out of the house.

_One guy dragged her out of the backdoor, into the garden, and out of the gate to the small alley in the back of the house. There she was pushed to the ground. She didn't really care what happened to her now, the pain was so fresh, the hurt deeper than she could've ever imagined. She closed her eyes lying on the cold tiles, just crying. The only thought racing through their head; 'they're dead, it's my fault, they're dead, it's my fault." Over and over again, this one thought._

_The Italian stood over her. Now, she could truly see how ugly he really was, she couldn't understand why she had ever thought of him as handsome, he was the ugliest man she ever laid eyes on._

"_Now for humiliation." He said, "the second lesson for today." _

_She knew what was coming, and though she feared it, she didn't try to struggle, in her mind she felt she deserved it, she deserved to be punished for bringing this on her family. _

_He motioned one of his men to remove the tape from her mouth. _

_She didn't make a sound as her mouth was freed. She didn't want to say anything more now. Now it was too late to talk. It occurred to her later that the tape had been the biggest torment and was meant as this. To not talk to the ones you loved, as you saw them die was probably one of the worst things that could happen to a person, you couldn't comfort them, tell them you loved them, nothing._

_The Italian got to his knees, bending over her. She stared at him dazed. He ripped of her dress in a single motion, leaving her lying in the cold in her underwear. Still, she didn't struggle, she didn't try to escape, for the moment her life wasn't worth fighting for. This seemed to upset him. She vaguely remembered hearing once that rapist mostly get exited by the fact that the women try to fight. He hit her in the face, trying to provoke some response. She didn't give any._

"_Now you know how it feels when someone humiliates you, you whore." He growled in her face, "And for the rest of your life, you will never forget."_

_Suddenly, all the rage came back into her. Mostly, she was angry at herself, here was the man who had killed the people she loved most, and she didn't even try to hurt him. But her hands and feet where still tied. So she spit in his face again, remembering how angry it had made him. And it did make him angry, but this time, there were no restrictions to hold back his revenge. He grabbed hold of her hair and banged her head to the ground, once, twice, at the third blow she lost consciousness._

She looked up, suddenly sensing there was someone else in the room. The Joker was standing right in front of her, looking at her seriously. "Now beautiful, we need to talk."


	16. This house is a circus

**I am truly sorry that i didn't update sooner. I am now behind my laptop at 2.30 am on a saturday night, if that doesn't show commitment i dont know what does... First thing, i really want to thank everyone who put this story on their alert, c2 or even fav lists, thanks so much! Now for the chapter, i haven't reread it yet, i might do so later and make some small changes. If you have anything you think i could do better please tell me, not about future chapters though, i know exactly where this story is going, i have since the moment i started it. This story is nearing its end though, so hang in there and as always, i hope you enjoy this one:)**

**Chapter 16: This house is a circus**

"I don't want to talk." Laura said weakly.

"Well, uhm, you don't exactly have a _choice_."

"Alright, you talk, I listen, just don't expect me to say anything." She said, crossing her arms like a spoiled child.

"You walked out on our _conversation _and I… don't… like… that."

"Deal with it!"

"Ah, I thought you wouldn't say anything…"

Laura was silent for a while, the Joker stared at her intently. After some time she couldn't stand his gaze, and averted her eyes.

"Now where were we, ah yess, we wait, one week, and then, bye, bye Brucy."

"And you came here to tell me this, didn't you think I could've guessed that on my own?"

He seemed to ignore this question, and asked her one of his own "And what do you think I'll get for killing Bruce Wayne?"

"First, satisfaction, second, probably get the Batman out of hiding as well."

"Very good… Now this is what I want you to understand. If you want to join our team, you've got to think like me."

Laura looked at him questionably, raising her eyebrows like saying 'that's not going to happen'.

"And that means, whenever you think of something to do, make sure both outcomes are to your benefit."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, when I say: "If Coleman Reese isn't dead in 60 minutes, I'll blow up a hospital" you have two outcomes. One, someone kills the guy, showing the corruption of Gotham's soul, two, you get to blow up a hospital."

"So you mean, in this case, one, you get to play with your beloved bat, or two, you get to kill some guy."

The Joker clapped his hands and giggled, "Very good."

"Now, I have a question for you. Why haven't you killed me yet?"

He looked deep into her eyes, frowning. "Well, some people are just too much fun. But… you might not fit into this category for a very long time…"

"You wouldn't either if you saw the ones you loved burning before your eyes." Laura said, not fighting back the tears that surfaced.

"Hmm… Nice metaphor. I-"

"It's not a metaphor you idiot!!!" Laura screamed, getting up and walking away from him. She wanted to be alone again. Remember it all. She had been selfish to push away these feelings. The guilt she had about their deaths was coming back full force, combined with the guilt for trying to forget it. Deep inside she knew she couldn't be blamed for this, she knew his reaction had been terribly out of proportions and she could have never expected it that night she told him to go away. But still, if she hadn't done it, they would still be alive. And there were so many things to be sorry about, so many things that could have been different. She had wondered often, in the aftermath of the events, if it had been the spitting in his face that had triggered him to defend his honor. She guessed it might be so. He had clearly been some kind of mobster or a criminal like that, a man that would revert to horrible things just to defend his honor. The guilt she had felt, and was now coming back, was made worse by the fact she had laughed about spitting in his face, while it very well could be the reason the people she loved most were now dead. Why was she the kind of person that could never fake anything, the kind of person that spoke with her mind, often before considering her words. So many questions and probably never a single answer.

She had been so deep in thought she didn't notice the Joker walking behind her, and when she reached the far end of the room and put her head against the wall, she suddenly felt his hands on her shoulders, forcing her to turn around.

"If you ruin this for me, I'll make you regret it." He growled in her face. She shifted in his arms, wanting to get away, wanting to go to that far away place.

"I don't care about what you're doing."

"You really should."

"Why?"

"It's your future."

"I have no future, my past prevents it."

He laughed at this, "Your past prevents it? That's just not true, the past doesn't exist."

"It.. What? Of course it does!"

"You've got so much to learn. If you don't think about the past, it stops existing."

"I can't stop thinking about it, I can't forget it."

He let her go and walked away, "You bore me." He said, as he slammed the door shut.

~*~

Laura didn't even think about what had been said, she was still consumed with her past. She was now the prisoner of her own memories and she didn't care to escape.

She remembered waking up in an ambulance, no idea how she got there or what happened. Asking the paramedic what happened. Where was she? Where was her family? She'd remembered having Christmas eve dinner, but after that, she just didn't know.

_The paramedic told her she was probably suffering from retrograde amnesia caused by a concussion, and she should have her memory back in no more than a few hours. _

"_Do you know what happened? Where is my family?" _

_The medic looked at the ground, never a good sign, then he slowly said, "Your neighbors heard some noises on the street and found you. Your house… was on fire…"_

"_What about my family?" She cried._

"_When we arrived the firefighters were still trying to put out the flames. They haven't entered the house yet."_

That day had been hell, slowly getting her memory back. Feeling the pain of her loss all over again. By the time the Ct-scan was made she knew it all again. The doctors told her it was only a concussion and she should be fine and the police were waiting to question her.

The rest of her memories were blurred, probably from trying to forget them. She remembered the funerals, of course, the endless condolences. She remembered sitting in her room in her shared apartment and doing nothing for hours but stare at the floor. She remembered picking up smoking again, an addiction she had given up for more than a year. She remembered the interrogations by the police and never a single lead or suspect. But most of all, she remembered the ring. The ring had sucked the last piece of life out of her. The ring was somehow worst of all, because it stood for everything her life could have been.

_Her mother-in-law brought it to her, saying she wasn't sure it was the right thing to do, but it was what her son would've wanted. She had found it when she finally had the courage to unpack his bag that he was going to bring to Paris. It was an engagement ring of course, and it was perfect. He had been planning to propose to her in Paris, probably on new-year's eve. She cried and told her mother-in-law it had been the right thing to do, even though in her heart she wished she'd never found out. That evening had been the first she had sat with a knife in her hands, so many were to follow._

_When she moved to Gotham eight months later, it was one of the few things she took with her. She never looked at it again, but it was good to know it was still in the bottom drawer of her nightstand in-_

With a shock Laura sat up. It had been in the bottom drawer of her nightstand in her apartment, was what she had thought, but her apartment was no more, and neither was the ring. She had lost it. She hadn't even thought about it for all this time. She had just forgotten it like everything else. She truly had to be the worst person in the world.

~*~

After some time (she had no idea how long) she had fallen asleep and her incoherent thoughts just gave way to incoherent nightmares. When she woke up it was brought daylight and Max was standing in front of her with a plate of scrambled eggs.

"I'm not hungry" She said. Even looking at the food made her feel sick.

"Well, you've got to eat something." Max replied.

"Just leave it here then, I'll eat later."

Max sat next to her on the mattress, putting his arm over her shoulders. For a few minutes they said nothing to each other. Then Max said: "You could tell me, if you think it'll make you feel better."

She didn't know if it would, but she did anyway.

"And now, thanks to your stupid clown boss, I remember it all, if I hadn't worked there, if Gordon didn't go there, everything would still be okay." She finished.

"Was it okay?" Max asked, "Was it really?"

Laura contemplated this, "I guess, in a way. I let myself grow dull, I let myself be consumed by the city and the monotonous quality of life. I wasn't happy, but I wasn't truly sad like I am now."

"And why are you truly sad?" He asked. He reminded her of her shrink, not a person she had fond memories of.

"Because, they are dead, and because if I hadn't been the stupid bitch I am, they wouldn't be. And because I forget, I let them be forgotten."

"Do you believe in heaven?" He asked her, all these questions, but his intentions were good and it were questions she had asked herself numerous times

"No," Laura said simply, "I don't believe in it or any form of afterlife, I wish I could, but you know, I've studied medicine, and with all the information on how the brain works, I just couldn't picture anything like a soul."

"Then why is it so horrible to forget them, when forgetting is probably the best thing to do for yourself. The way you tell it, it's a better option than living with it."

That was true, and she knew it, but still, "Because it was my fault so I have to live with the consequences." She whispered.

"Says who?" Max asked. She couldn't answer him, the only answer would've been 'me' and she knew what his response would be to that, and frankly, she wanted this conversation to be over.

She put her head on his shoulder and after just a few minutes she had fallen asleep again.

~*~

She woke up and actually felt better, she hadn't believed it possible, but it was true. She looked at the plate of cold scrambled eggs and heard her stomach give a loud rumble.

When she was done eating she suddenly heard people screaming. With renewed interest she walked towards the door, seeing two guys fighting in the hallway. They were guys she had never seen before and were surrounded by a crowd with unfamiliar faces. She slowly opened the door and walked towards them.

The men stopped fighting the minute they saw her, one of them still had the other one in a death grip around his neck. She knew she probably looked strange, she could feel her eyes were still puffy from crying and her hair was probably all messed up again. But they weren't exactly what you would call normal either. There were a few guys that reminded her of Bull, some others who had clearly suffered major head trauma as kids, muttering to themselves, and then some who just had that confused, yet dangerous look on their faces.

She was wondering how she would ever get past them, when she saw Max coming up the stairs. "Make way now, guys." He said, like he owned the place, thinking about it, he did, "Boss's orders to leave this one alone." Laura was sure the Joker had ordered no such thing, but was very thankful for Max's intervention. She walked past the men, feeling very uncomfortable with all of them staring at her.

Max handed her a key as they walked downstairs. "What's that for?" She asked.

"The staff room." He answered, but before she could reply and say that there was no lock on the staffroom, she saw that there was a brand new lock on the door.

"What's that for?" She asked again. But again, no reply was needed as she walked in and saw Bruce sitting on the floor tied to a sturdy metal pipe. He looked fast asleep, which seemed like a challenge in itself, as the floor was very hard and his position was anything but comfortable.

"You'll sleep here from now on." Max said.

Laura looked around, the only thing to sleep on was the couch, which was quite nice, but it sure didn't beat a bed.

"Why?" She asked.

"Didn't you pay attention to those guys just now?" Max asked, "Most of them used to be in Arkham. And the window to your room is still broken. You're lucky none of them knew where you were sleeping…"

"So what? I've got my gun." Laura said, lifting up her dress just a little to show it to him.

"Yeah, but that doesn't work very well when you're asleep. Please Laura, do it for me?"

That was one of the most annoying things anyone could ever say, but looking in his face and seeing his concern, she gave in.

"Good. Now, tonight, as a celebration of your moving in, let's have a drink here." Max said.

Laura smiled, remembering the last time she had a drink didn't go so well, but still she felt like it was a nice idea and would be something different. So she told him she'd love to.

"Have you seen the news yet?" He suddenly asked, turning on the television.

"No, do I want to?" She asked, of course knowing very well what it was about.

"Let's find out." Max said.

When the news finally started it began with the kidnapping of Bruce Wayne. The newswoman told them about his kidnap and the murder of the guests. "Apparently," she said, "the perpetrators used a poisonous gas once they had left the building. Very few is known about the motive of the crime, although it is known that again the criminals were wearing clown masks, which points in the direction of yet another revenge for the Joker's death. Also, one of the suspects shown on camera images was not wearing a mask and has been identified as Laura de Jong, a woman who had supposedly died in an explosion at her apartment. Evidence is yet to confirm this, as the remains found in mrs. De Jong's apartment are of a woman of the same blood type, and there is no known DNA or dental record for mrs. De Jong."

Laura turned to Max, "So what do I do now? Stay in?"

"No one's allowed to go out anymore." Max said, "The Joker's really obsessed with this plan and he doesn't want anything to go wrong."

~*~

Laura spent the rest of the day thinking, not about her past this, but about where to go next. She had absolutely no idea. It felt like, after she had first met the Joker, she had just been going along. Actually, she had been going along with everything for years. She had never really considered possibilities, never considered doing anything different. Still, it had not been too bad to go along, to shut her mind down.

When evening came she was still undecided, but she figured she still had five days to make up her mind.

Max came in around seven with Larry, carrying food. She was glad they were here, even though she really disliked Larry. She had only been out of the room twice today, to go to the bathroom. She felt like she could be attacked every minute while she walked down the corridors, she hadn't even dared to take a shower. It seemed like those guys out there were either talking to themselves or staring at her with looks to kill, both weren't very comforting. She figured as long as she hadn't decided what she was going to do with her life, she might as well keep on living until she did. Although suicide had anything but slipped her mind.

After dinner Max went out again, but he came back soon. In his hands was a full bag.

"So, what do you want first?" He asked, "We've got beer, vodka and orange juice, and tequila."

Laura smiled, "let's start with beer first."

~*~

After three hours the beer and tequila were already gone, and the vodka was well on its way.

"Do we have food?" Laura asked.

"Sure." Max answered, pulling out two bags of chips from the bag.

Laura laughed, "Dude, that bag of yours is magical!" She exclaimed.

Max laughed, "I think you had more than enough to drink."

Laura shrugged, "I've got nowhere to go."

She knew she was drunk, but so what, so was Max, and besides, it felt good.

"This was the best idea anyone could have." She told Max, and at the moment, meaning it too.

"Thanks Laura," Max said, smiling "You know, I've gotta tell you something."

"Okay."

"You know, Laura, I like you."

"I like you too Max," Laura said, smiling, he was such a cutie really.

"But, I think you should know, something important…"

But Laura was distracted by Bruce Wayne. He had been awake for a while, sitting and staring at the floor, but now he was looking at the television, gaping at it almost. Laura snapped her head towards it, on the screen was the news broadcaster. She stopped listening to Max, a mistake that changed the course of her life.

"Among the people mr. Fox found in the hidden room were the new lieutenant, Bill Stevenson and Bruce Wayne's butler Alfred Pennyworth. Mr. Fox is a close friend and business partner of Bruce Wayne and probably one of the only people who knew about the room in the penthouse." The newsman said.

Laura could hear Max muttering curses under his breath.

"Four of the six people who were found had survived, but are all in a deep coma. Little is known about their chances of survival as the exact compound of the poison used is yet to be examined."

"Shit, fuck, shit!" Max yelled.

"Come on." Laura said, putting her arm around his shoulder, "They might never wake up."

"Yeah, you're right," Max said, "And I probably couldn't have kept up with this for long, someone was bound to find out. But I still really need to tell you something. The-"

The door slammed open and they all looked around, Bruce included. The Joker was standing in the doorway, looking more angry than she'd ever seen him.

"Max, we need to talk." The Joker said, "NOW!"

At that moment Laura didn't see how serious this situation was. Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe she just thought the news couldn't make the Joker this angry.

She looked at the Joker, with his weird white make-up, and suddenly it struck her as really funny, "Hey Joker, you look pale today, are you alright?" She said, and bursting in to a fit of laughter. Not caring that no one else laughed, not noticing the Bruce Wayne was staring at her intently. Not noticing the terrified look in Max's eyes.

She heard the door slam as she was trying to get her laughter under control. She didn't know until much later that she would never see Max again.


End file.
